First Marriage Then Love Chapter 92

An Ran was also surprised that the person Zhou Han had called over was Ye Zi Wen. However, thinking about it they used to be close friends. Right now Zhou Han was not present, so contacting him wasn’t that out of place.

“Why are you here?” Ye Zi Wen comes forward, looking at her oddly.

An Ran stood there, and explains, “I’m here to see my friend. Just happened to run into this child. Then the nurse said that the child was left at the hospital for a few days, so I called Zhou Han.”

Ye Ze Wen nods. He comes forward and squats down to face the child, smiling as he speaks, “Xiao Bin, your dad is on a business trip. Is it alright if you stay at uncle’s place for a few days?” In fact, after last time, he still stayed in contact with Zhou Han, sometimes even asking him to come out for a drink.

An Ran takes a quick look at the child. She rubs his small head, then speaks to Ye Zi Wen, “Since you’re here, I’ll take my leave first.” She turns around to leave. She has to return and fix up today’s blueprint. The deadline that Huang De Xing gave her was tomorrow, and it looks like she has to stay up all night today.

“Are you familiar with Zhou Han?” Ye Zi Wen asks from behind.

An Ran turns around, looks at him suspiciously. She just says, “If you consider running into each other a few times ‘familiar’.”

Ye Zi Wen frowns, “Has Yi Cheng told you about Zhou Han?”

An Ran nods. She was grateful for Su Yi Cheng’s honesty, because it gave her faith in this marriage.

Ye Zi Wen chuckles and talks to himself, “If he can tell you this stuff, looks like he really is over it.”

An Ran didn’t catch what he had said, and frowns. Puzzled, she asks, “What’d you say?”

Ye Zi Wen shakes his head, and says, “Uh, nothing.”

He isn’t telling An Ran so she doesn’t press on. She nods, turning around to leave.

“Hey, right, the room is ready. When are you guys going to move in?” Before, Su Yi Cheng, that brat, continually urged him like a ghost to hurry up. And now he was all caught up with the project, but he hasn’t even said anything about it. Before he had called to ask if he was moving or not, that it was ready. He said his wife wasn’t in a good mood, so they have to push it back a few days. He never would have thought to see that this brat would become a slave to his wife!

An Ran was stunned, and asks, “It’s ready?”

When Su Yi Cheng had brought her to take a look it didn’t seem ready. According to a normal project progress, at the least it would have to take half a month!

Ye Zi Wen rolls his eyes, and says, “It’s been ready for a few days now. Ah Cheng said that you weren’t in a good mood, so he pushed the moving date back a few days. Anyways, so when is your mood going to improve, I’ll arrange the move for you guys.” Look at how good he is, even following up with the after-sales service.

Being told that, An Ran started to feel embarra.s.sed. It’s probably because of the thing with Lin Li, that Su Yi Cheng yielded to her. He didn’t want to bother her, so he never mentioned moving.

“I’ll ask him when he comes back tonight.” An Ran just says so. She started to feel this sweetness swell up because of Su Yi Cheng’s consideration of her.

Ye Zi Wen nods, and says, “Did you drive here? If not I can send you home, in any case it’s on the way.”

An Ran thinks about it, not declining.

The two handle the outpatient procedure for the child. By the time they left the hospital doors it was almost nightfall.

In the car, An Ran and the child sit behind. The child quietly sat there, head down, playing with the Transformers in his hand. An Ran rubs his head. This child rarely smiled, apart from the time when he was outside at Jun Qu courtyard happily playing by himself, the few times after that, she hasn’t seen him smile at all, and he seemed to be afraid of Zhou Han. He clearly likes him, that she can tell from his expression when he woke up last time and saw Zhou Han.

Ye Zi Wen looks at An Ran through the rear-view mirror. In his mind he has some regrets. He had been interested in An Ran, only he hadn’t made his moves, only to discover that she was already Ah Cheng’s wife. Life is truly full of wonders, he and Ah Cheng had seen her together, but in the end she became Ah Cheng’s wife. For many years Ah Cheng wasn’t one to talk about emotions, did not talk about love, but he didn’t expect that he would suddenly marry her at the spur of the moment. And now looking at the relations.h.i.+p of the wedded couple you can see that they were very good.

“Looks like your’s and Ah Cheng’s relations.h.i.+p isn’t too bad. How did you get to know each other?” He always wanted to know how Ah Cheng made his moves, seeing how easily things went, if one day he also meets someone, perhaps he too could try it out. But whenever he had asked, that dude would just smile and not say anything, so mysterious.

Hearing that, An Ran was taken aback. She truly does not know how to describe their mistakened encounter. Her eyes flicker, and hollowly laughs, “Just, just met through a blind date.”

“Blind date?” Ye Zi Wen frowns and mutters, “Didn’t he always reject those? Or did he go because he knew it was you?”

“En? What’d you say?” An Ran was puzzled. Knew it was her? Did they know each other before?

“I knew that dude was two-faced. He definitely had known earlier that it was you, and that’s why he agreed to meet you for the blind date.” Ye Zi Wen says confidently. He was a little regretful that he hadn’t made the first move that time, if not for this how could he, as a person with such distinguished and excellent qualities, be unable to compete against that moody and uninteresting black bellied wolf. But after experiencing this, next time, next time if he meets someone like this he will strike first too.

“He’s seen me before?” An Ran probes.

“I said me, I saw you before. You insist on not believing me. When you were on a blind date at Da Cheng you met a ‘high quality’ man, who used a coffee coupon to pay the bill. That time, Ah Cheng and I were sitting behind you. When you left, I snuck a look at you.” Ye Zi Wen says. “Didn’t expect that dude was already interested in you, using such underhanded means to strike first and cheat you into marriage. I didn’t even get a chance.” As Ye Zi Wen was speaking, his tone was a little gloomy.

An Ran was taken aback. She did not expect that they would be there behind her, and even witnessed everything. With this realization, An Ran started to feel embarra.s.sment. However if you had to ask who struck first, it wouldn’t be Su Yi Cheng, but her. After all it was she who had proposed marriage upon the first meeting.

“But anyhow, you seem to be quite incredible. You managed to get Ah Cheng under your leash, I’ve never seen him treat women so well.” Ye Zi Wen mutters, “Even when he was with Ling Ran he was never that good with her.”

“He wasn’t good to Ling Ran?” An Ran curiously asks, but deep inside she started to feel this indescribable sour feeling. She doesn’t know if she was feeling envious or jealous, but she doesn’t like to hear about him and Ling Ran.

“How do I put it. Back then when he and Ling Ran were together, it was like a matter of course. Ling Ran had liked Ah Cheng since childhood, everyone had known that. Should say that Ah Cheng didn’t dislike her, and both their parents knew each other. Over time everyone naturally a.s.sumed that they would get together, so the two really did get together. If you just look at Ah Cheng from the surface you can see that he is gentle and agreeable, when the fact is he is quite detached to people, doesn’t stay in touch. At first Ling Ran complained to us a few times about it, then after time she slowly got used to it.” As he said that, Ye Zi Wen looks at her through his spectacles, and continues, “But it looks like he’s treating you very well. Is it you that is dominant or was he originally such a whipped man?”

An Ran glares at him, and says in seriousness, “We both respect each other.” She can’t believe that the man before is really ‘Eric’, the acclaimed talented architect Eric! His personal character and his style of designs do not match up at all.

Ye Zi Wen glances at her, and indifferently shrugs. He shakes his head, “Maybe that dude had secretly mapped it out. You just don’t understand Ah Cheng, that dude holds evil intentions behind his smile, he’s a black bellied wolf.” And from his experience from growing up and going through thick and thin with him, Ah Cheng would never do transactions that risk losses, just to take it at face value, to him it looks like, either this dude truly acted on his emotions, or he had schemed something, and Gu An Ran probably doesn't have any schemes up her sleeves.

Being told that, An Ran was taken aback. She didn’t worry about whatever scheming he was talking about, but it really was as he had said. She really doesn’t know him, doesn’t know what he likes, doesn’t know his tastes, she can’t even tell what his mood is from the expression on his face. They are together everyday, obviously they are close, but sometimes she feels that he is really far away. Perhaps it is what Ye Zi Wen had just said, she really doesn’t know anything about him.

When they got back to the apartment it was almost 5 o’clock. Because she had gotten up late this morning, she doesn’t know if Su Yi Cheng has a dinner party or not. But, just in case, An Ran planned to go to the neighbourhood supermarket and buy food, make a simple meal. This way even if Su Yi Cheng doesn’t have a dinner party and comes home, there would still be food, and if he doesn’t come home, she can treat her own stomach.

She pushes her cart into the market. She realizes that she doesn’t know what she should buy. There are some stuff that she can make, but she doesn’t know if Su Yi Cheng would like them or not, so she was hesitating if she should buy or not. And there are some things she can’t make. Even if she buys the ingredients, she isn’t sure how to make it.

In the end she circled around the market, and her cart was still empty. Finally An Ran decided, she should buy things that she could make, even if she doesn’t know if he’ll like it, but at least she can make it, better than leaving an empty fridge until he came back from a whole day of work.

An Ran goes back around with her cart, and goes to the fruits and veggies aisle to grab some fresh veggies and corn. Then she goes to the meat aisle and grabs from fresh pork loin. When she was thinking of going to get eggs she accidentally b.u.mped into another cart. An Ran automatically apologizes, “Sorry.” But the moment she raised her head she was taken aback.

Ling Ran smiles back and looks at her. She was still bright and beautiful. Today she was wearing a light blue striped bohemian style long skirt. Her elegant long hair trailed down her shoulders. She was beautiful like an angel, carried this celestial air, like she appeared from the mist.

“What a coincidence, also here to buy food?” Ling Ran initiates the conversation, her performance appearing to be very generous.

An Ran slightly nods and smiles at her. That smile, was a bit distant. After last time, seeing her again, An Ran always felt slightly uneasy.

“Let me see what you bought.” Ling Ran was cordial as usual, only An Ran had always felt that there was something behind that cordiality, not as simple as it appeared.

Not waiting for An Ran to neither reply nor decline, Ling Ran already went ahead and lowered her head to examine the stuff in her shopping cart. Seeing the corn in the cart, she doesn’t hold back, “Ah, why did you buy corn, Ah Cheng never eats corn. He says that corn has a weird taste, he’s not used to it.” Saying that, she also picks up the rapeseed, looks at An Ran and shakes her head again, “Ah Cheng also doesn’t eat rapeseeds. He says it’s a bit bitter, he prefers rhizome’s bok choy.” She looks at the box of pork loin, and couldn’t help but frown and sigh, continuing, “An Ran, do you not know anything about what Ah Cheng likes to eat? He doesn’t like to eat greasy food at night, otherwise after eating he has to do vigorous exercise to burn the calories.” She finished speaking, and takes the box of pork loin and puts it back on the shelf.

She smiles and says to An Ran, “Let’s go, I’ll show you what to buy. Otherwise if you really do buy that stuff, Ah Cheng will starve and not eat.”

An Ran felt uneasy, especially when she was talking about what Su Yi Cheng does and does not like to eat, as she was hearing it she felt incredibly stuffy. She felt peeved and takes back the box of ribs and puts it back in her cart. She looks at her and says, “What I eat, Yi Cheng will also eat.”

Ling Ran stares at her in shock. Only a while later does she smile and says, “Right. I completely forgot, Ah Cheng is very considerate of people. He always thinks of others, so naturally he will yield to you.”

An Ran stares at her. She speaks right after, “Yes. He really loves me, and is very yielding to me. What I want to eat he will buy, make. Even if he doesn’t like it, he will still eat it very happily.”

Ling Ran looks at her and nods, “He’s just like that. He had also treated me that way, ever since we were kids if I liked it, he would do anything to get it. Sometimes I worry that he is caring too much for my feelings, doing so much for my moodiness, that he will feel like he was wronging himself, so I would always make it up to him as much as I could. For instance what he likes to eat, what he likes to make, I will do my best to satisfy him. After all we can’t be too selfish, only thinking of ourselves and wronging him. Don’t you think?”

She doesn’t know this emotion. After hearing her speak like that, An Ran couldn’t help but tighten her grip on her shopping car, with indescribable strength, so much that her knuckles turned white. She looks at her. An Ran wanted to smile, but she couldn’t manage to bring one up. It turned out stiff, and she says, “I don’t at all think that what he does for me is wrongful for him. I think he takes a lot of pleasure out of doing it.”

“Really.” Ling Ran smiles faintly. She looks at her. There was this indescribable meaning behind her smile. In An Ran’s eyes, it made her even more uneasy.

“Yes.” Clenching her fists, An Ran says indifferently, “I think I have everything I want. Miss Ling can continue buying as she wishes, I will say goodbye first.” She smiles faintly, looks at her wrist.w.a.tch, and says, “Sorry, Yi Cheng should be coming home from work soon. I better hurry back and cook, can’t chat anymore.”

Ling Ran looks at her and still has a smile on her face, she nods, “As you wish.” Although she was smiling as she spoke, her tone, that smile, was much more rigid and unnatural than before.

An Ran nods, and pushes her cart past her. She doesn’t glance at her, just walks straight ahead.

Ling Ran turns to look at her from behind. The smile on her face turns still, only her grip on the cart was clearly tightened, so much that her fingers turned white.

An Ran returns home. Peeved, she places the stuff on the kitchen table. She stares at it, a while later, she mumbles to herself. She washes the rice and puts it in the rice cooker to cook. While the rice was cooking, she grabs the corn. Her movements were a bit clumsy. She picks out each grain and puts it on a plate, then puts it aside for later.

She then washes each rapeseed and plucks out the leaves. Finally she works on the pork loin, was.h.i.+ng it clean, then puts it in a pot of unboiled water to cook. When the loin was fully cooked, there was a half-pot of soup left over. She adds vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and sugar and lets it simmer. She waits until there was only a quarter of the soup left, until it had thickened, and adds two scoops of white sugar. She ups the fire to collect the juice, then transfers it onto a dish.

She grabs ham from the fridge, thinly sliced it, then puts the cooled fat from the pan, directly on the corn grains and ham and uses the cooled fat to stir fry it. She stir fries it until a sweet smell appeared, and loads it onto a pot. Then she puts the cleaned rapeseed and directly puts it into the soup.

She learned how to make these three dishes from Cheng Xiang’s cookbook when she was at Lin Li's place. It was relatively easy to understand, the steps weren’t too complicated, so she was able to remember it after reading it once. However, it was the first time she had made it, as to how it tasted, is unknown.

An Ran arranges the dishes, and at this time the rice cooker began to whistle indicating that the rice was done. She places the dish back down on the counter behind her, and at the same time someone had opened the door.

Su Yi Cheng enters carrying his briefcase. He changes his shoes at the vestibule, then enters the living room. He asks where the sweet fragrance was coming from, raises his head to see An Ran standing behind the counter. She was wearing an ap.r.o.n, hand still balancing a plate that was yet to be placed down. So quietly watching, this kind of scene seemed to have appeared in his dreams. Coming home from work everyday, his home no longer has that cold and lonely atmosphere. He now has someone leaving a warm lamp on by the door, and leave his briefcase down by the living room sofa, he could see into the kitchen, there is someone holding freshly made food smiling at him, gently calling him over to eat.

He smiles as he looks at An Ran. He puts his briefcase down on the sofa, calling her over with a smile. He doesn’t come to take a look at the dishes on the counter, but just stares at her. He wraps an arm around her waist, and chuckles as he asks, “What did you make tonight?”

An Ran stares at him, with a confused look in her eyes, she almost couldn’t come up with a response. She was lost in the warm expression in his eyes. She looks at the dishes on the counter. Suddenly she recalled what Ling Ran had said at the market. She started to feel uneasy, and a little depressed. She reaches out and pushes him away slightly. A little damp, she says, “Take a look yourself.”

Su Yi Cheng doesn’t notice the change in her mood. He turns to look at the food on the counter. He smirks, and only says, “Looks pretty good.”

An Ran doesn’t say anything, and goes to wash a rice scooper from the cupboard. Then she places the bowl of rice on the table. She takes a quick look at him, and only says, “Go wash your hands first and eat.” Then she turns to scoop herself a half bowl of rice.

Su Yi Cheng giddily turns around to the kitchen sink and washes his hands clean. Then he grabs a towel and dries his hands off, and excitedly sits down by the counter. He picks up his chopsticks and starts picking the food. He takes a bite of a piece of sweet and sour pork, chewing it slowly. His brows wrinkle slightly. He looks at An Ran to his side. He was saving her face and did not spit it out, just swallows it down.

An Ran did not miss the momentary frown that he had put on. She was secretly disappointed. Perhaps it was as Ling Ran had said, he really does not like these sort of dishes. Only he is a considerate man, if he doesn’t like it he wouldn’t display it, wouldn’t let everyone see it, he could finish eating it without changing expressions.

An Ran picks up the ladle from the table, and takes a large scoop of ham corn grain and puts it in his bowl. She smiles faintly and says, “Try this one.”

Su Yi Cheng still looks at her and smiles. He nods, and scoops up half of it into his mouth. The unique flavour of corn made him feel a little unwell. He frowns slightly, but doesn’t take too long to chew it, and just swallows it down.

An Ran did not miss that slight frown he made from eating the corn, this confirmed the truth. When Su Yi Cheng stretched out to get some of the vegetable soup, An Ran suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand. She shakes her head, and just faintly says, “If you aren’t used to eating it or don’t like it don’t force yourself.”

Su Yi Cheng stared at her, at a loss for words. He then realizes that she was a bit off tonight. He asks, “What’s wrong?”

An Ran shakes her head. She gets up and says, “I’ll make noodles for you.” Maybe compared to these, soup is better suited for his appet.i.te.

Su Yi Cheng, unconvinced, reaches out to grab her. He gets up, and stares at her, asking, “What’s wrong?”

An Ran lowers her head, and just unenthusiastically shakes her head. She mutters, “Nothing.”

Su Yi Cheng stares at her. He reaches out and lifts her head up, allowing her look at him in the eyes. With a compelling force she couldn’t ignore, he says, “An Ran, tell me. What happened today?”

An Ran looked at him for a while. She turns her head aside. She doesn’t want to look at him, and stuffily says, “I just unintentionally found out that you actually don’t like this stuff.” Just as Ye Zi Wen had said in the car, she does not understand Su Yi Cheng at all. Don’t even mention about what his thoughts were, those vague things, even what he likes to eat, what he doesn’t like to eat those simple issues she had to learn from other people. This kind of feeling felt terrible, and it made her very unhappy.

Su Yi Cheng was taken aback. Her answer was a little unexpected. He catches sight of her face, and sincerely asks her, “Who told you that?”

An Ran stares at him for a while. Finally she slowly says, “When I went to the supermarket I b.u.mped into Ling Ran. She saw that I bought these, and told me that you actually don’t like eating these things.” She lowers her head, and mumbles, “I don’t even know what you like to eat, what you don’t like. It’s as they said, we are married, and I don’t even understand you, even the basic things like your every day habits and what you like, these simple things I had to learn from other people. The more I thought about it the more unfathomable I felt. I don’t like this feeling, and I especially don’t like learning about what your pleasures are, hearing it makes me feel awkward and uncomfortable.” She confesses honestly. Those were the thoughts that came to her.

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng was speechless for a while. He then reacts, and returns to his senses. He says, “If you want to know, you can just ask me. It’s no biggie.”

An Ran was taken aback, looking at him, neither shaking nor nodding her head.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles as he rubs her face, and asks, “The way you were just now, could I say that you were jealous?”

An Ran looks away, and whispers, “I’m just a little awkward. Also, I feel like some things I could slowly learn on my own, slowly get to know the interesting facts, it’s just meaningful. To learn from another person is a terrible feeling.” Especially when that person was Ling Ran. She doesn’t know what was wrong with herself, but to have this kind of mood in her, clearly she cares about the prior relations.h.i.+p between her and Su Yi Cheng. But to compare their relations.h.i.+p to her own, she starts to feel incredibly uncomfortable, and her mood becomes especially gloomy. She never thought this way, but she can’t control it. She doesn’t like this side of her at all.

Su Yi Cheng smiled. He turns to pick up the ladle from the bowl, and reaches out to scoop up the corn. He takes a mouthful of it. He really could not get used to that distinct flavour of corn, but the thought that she had made dinner for him, made him so joyful that it overrode that flavour. The first time he tasted the corn it had a sweet flavour, fresh and crisp, not at all something that he would hate or cannot have. He looks at An Ran, and chuckles, “It’s really good.”

An Ran looks at him and says, “Don’t force yourself. You being like this makes me feel like I’m selfish.”

Su Yi Cheng shakes his head, and takes another spoonful and puts it into his mouth. Then he swallows, and says, “I actually don’t like the favour of corn, but because you made this, so it’s different. My desire to eat it overpowers the flavour of it, so I’m not forcing myself. I only want to eat it because it’s a meal that my wife had personally made for me, I’m not wronged, but rather I feel blessed.”

An Ran looks at him, and utters, “You really know what to say to coax me.”

Su Yi Cheng laughs and shakes his head, “I’m telling the truth. When people speak the truth it tends to be especially pleasant to hear.”

An Ran sneers at him, and jokingly scolds him, “Twisting words and forcing logic, why does everything you say have to be so reasonable.”

Su Yi Cheng pulls on her. He takes her small hands and puts it against his large palm, chuckling and looking at her, he says sincerely, “An Ran, I know our pace has been pretty fast. You can’t possibly know everything about me in such a short period of time. What’s between us and others is different, others fall in love then marry, we married then fell in love. Our sequence is reversed, you can’t compare yourself to them who had been together for several years. We can only slowly understand each other through our everyday lives. If you feel like this kind of pace is too slow, then whatever you want to know, just ask me directly. I will tell you everything, I won’t hide, okay?"

An Ran looks at him. She fixes her eyes on him, for a long time. Her mouth slowly turns up, and enthusiastically nods her head, “Okay.”

Su Yi Cheng laughs, then pulls her down to sit again. He says, “I’m hungry. Don’t make noodles, accompany me to eat.”

An Ran nods, and sits up straight in her seat. She picks up her bowl, and takes small bites of her food. Then she reaches out get some of the sweet and sour pork. Today’s meal doesn’t look like a lot, and in fact it was the first time she had made this. Even when she was done she didn’t have the time to taste it. He had returned home, so she herself did not know how her dishes had turned out.

An Ran’s chopsticks hadn’t even touched the pork yet, when Su Yi Cheng pulled away the dish. He looks at her and mightily says, “I really like the pork, so all of this is mine. Eat something else.”

An Ran looks at him unconvinced. This kind of mighty att.i.tude was different from his usual self, but she can’t describe what was strange. She frowns for a while, then nods. She reaches out to grab a piece of bok choy.

Su Yi Cheng chuckles and finishes off the plate of pork cutlet, not even a strip was left over. As he ate, he also drank the large bowl of veggie soup, as if he were incredibly thirsty.

Finis.h.i.+ng dinner, Su Yi Cheng took the initiative to wash the dishes. An Ran didn’t insist, and only thought that she should catch up on her designs tonight, so she went into the studio.

Soon after Su Yi Cheng enters with his briefcase. He puts it aside and sits down on the rattan chair, opens it up and takes out some doc.u.ments to look over. Because she really needed to catch up on her drafts, An Ran did not ask out of courtesy if he wanted the room to himself. She was absorbed in the draft she drawn up yesterday and tweaked it little by little to make it perfect. However, as she was drawing she noticed Su Yi Cheng’s oddness. Finally, when he got up to make a cup of tea, An Ran eventually couldn’t help but ask, “What did you eat tonight, why are you drinking so much water?” Was her food too salty? It shouldn’t be, she tried it and it didn’t taste salty!

Su Yi Cheng looks at her. He struggles for a while, finally shakes his head and says, “Wife, the sweet and sour pork, from now on can you not use the salt like it's sugar?”

---END OF CHAPTER---