First Marriage Then Love Chapter 148

148. Reasons

"The picture is real, I did indeed enter the hotel last night with Ling Ran.” Su Yi Cheng looked into An Ran's eyes and said, with a calm face.

An Ran looked at him fixedly, did not speak, just quietly listened to him to go on.

Su Yi Cheng stood up, went over to her side, held her hand, and grasped it tightly. He slowly opened up the truth to An Ran about last night's events.

Originally yesterday as he was getting ready to get off work Secretary Zhang called him into the office. When Su Yi Cheng left Secretary Zhang's office and went back to his office, unknown to when Ling Ran had arrived, looked at him with an unsmiling smile.

Su Yi Cheng instinctively frowned. He looked at her slightly unhappy, and put the papers in his hands down on his desk. While packing up his own things, he said, “I think next time I should formally notify Secretary Zheng, that the next time you, Ling Ran, come to find me, can just be turned away at the door.”

Ling Ran smiled gently, not annoyed. She swept her wavy hair aside, smiled at him, hand placed on the desk, that v-neck s.h.i.+rt slightly revealed the outline of her chest in front of Su Yi Cheng.

Su Yi Cheng looked away in disgust, did not look at the seductive scene, and just coldly said, “Please conduct yourself with dignity.”

Ling Ran did not care, looked at him with a slightly charming smile, and said, “Ah Cheng, you still think of me.”

Su Yi Cheng gave her only a faint glance and said, “I don't remember giving you any hint of that.”

Ling Ran laughed, and then sat down in front of his desk, crossed her legs, and said, “You were willing to take me to see Yan Li that day, doesn't that reveal everything.”

“I remember what I told you was that it will only be once, not to be taken as precedent.” Su Yi Cheng said coldly, took the sorted briefcase to get up and got ready to leave.

Seeing that he was leaving, Ling Ran stepped forward to pull his hand, just wanted to take another step forward, but yet her hand was already relentlessly shaken off by him. He coldly said, “Miss Ling, please leave, I am ready to leave work.”

Ling Ran was not angry at his refusal, but shrugged her shoulders as he left the office.

When Su Yi Cheng came out of the office Secretary Zheng hadn't left yet, was finis.h.i.+ng tomorrow's doc.u.ments. Ling Ran and Su Yi Cheng came out of the office one after the other. When Su Yi Cheng pa.s.sed Secretary Zheng's office he stopped in front of his desk, and said, “Secretary Zheng, in the future when Miss Ling comes to find me, just decline her for me, I have nothing to say to her.”

Secretary Zheng, obviously did not expect that Su Yi Cheng would be so direct in blocking Ling Ran more so saying so in front of her face. Ling Ran who was in front also stopped, her face slightly green. Who would be happy after hearing such words.

Su Yi Cheng ignored their reaction and went out directly to the office door carrying his bag.

When he left it was a little past 8 o'clock in the evening. Because he made a promise with An Ran, Su Yi Cheng walked very quickly, strode from the city government building towards that parking lot.

Behind Ling Ran walked over with her 10cm high-heels, struggled a bit to catch up. She pulled on Su Yi Cheng, and said, “Su Yi Cheng, what did you mean just now! Am I so vile to you?”

Su Yi Cheng slightly frowned, coldly removed her hand, looked at her with no expression, tone was also a little cold, said, “What do you think? Was my remark not obvious enough?”

Ling Ran's face was somewhat hurt, looked at him keep shaking her head, somewhat aggrieved said, “Why must you treat me like that, we clearly were so good before!”

A little because of her face of grievance and his heart felt pity, Su Yi Cheng just coldly said, “You know that is the past. Since it is a thing of the past, what is the point of repeating that entanglement.” He was never a man who would be nostalgic for living in the past.

Ling Ran shook her head, stepped forward as if going to grab his hand, but was evaded by him as he stepped aside. Tears like a broken line of pearls, she looked at Su Yi Cheng like she couldn't control the tears rolling down her face and said, “Why won't you just give me a chance, because I was wrong once, so I must be sentenced to death? Su Yi Cheng, you are very cruel, you did not even give me a chance to appeal, you treating me that way is just too cruel!”

Su Yi Cheng turned around and left, really did not want to talk to her with such a meaningless topic. This topic of 7 years ago should be over, now coming back to such old things, he did not have so much time.

“Su Yi Cheng, don't go!” From behind Ling Ran caught up, she was about to catch his hand but was rudely shaken off by him. Because her heels were too high, she almost fell to the ground. Su Yi Cheng did not turn back and went directly to his parked car.

He put the briefcase on the pa.s.senger seat, then sat on the driver's seat. Su Yi Cheng had a habit of loosening his tie, then started the car ready to leave.

He slowly drove over to the gate, the doorman at the door immediately opened the iron door. While waiting he took his phone from his pocket, wanting to call An Ran and tell her that he was coming, only to see the caller ID on the phone screen, and that An Ran had called him just before.

“Ah! -- --”

Thinking that she must be anxious, he just pressed the call back. He raised the phone that had not yet connected that moment, suddenly only heard a cry in front of him, suddenly looked up, only to see Ling Ran fell in front of his car.

“d.a.m.n it!” Inside the car Su Yi Cheng cursed. He directly put the mobile phone in his hand to one side, and quickly stopped his car. He opened the door to get off. Seeing Ling Ran on the ground, her forehead had an open cut, blood flowed out from the wound.

Behind the reception the guard at the gate started to run over upon hearing the noise. He saw Su Yi Cheng and asked, “Mayor Su, this, what is going on?” He was a little confused, what kind of work is this, just knocked over, he just saw that woman walk out!

Su Yi Cheng could not speak, helped up Ling Ran from the ground, patted her face, while calling out, “Ling Ran, Ling Ran, wake up, can you hear me?”

Ling Ran in his arms only closed his eyes, did not respond to his calls. The wound on her forehead was small, but there was constant blood coming out.

Su Yi Cheng was just making a call, did not know when Ling Ran ran to his car and how she got hit, also did not know how much force was there, however seeing that the person had lost consciousness, he surmises the force must not have been small.

He just picked her up by the waist, and said to the doorman, “Help me open the door.”

The doorman reacted, nodded his head and said, “Okay.” As he spoke, he opened the door of Su Yi Cheng's back seat.

Su Yi Cheng carried Ling Ran to let her lie in the back, and then directly went to the front seat and started the car, turned to look at Ling Ran behind him, and directly drove over to the city hospital.

When Su Yi Cheng's car was about to arrive at the hospital, Ling Ran in his backseat quietly woke up, slowly got up, hands pressed to her forehead, and painfully said, “Ou—ouch….”

Su Yi Cheng looked at her through the rear-view mirror, and said, “Just wait a moment, I'm almost at the hospital.”

Ling Ran seemed to be awake, looked at Su Yi Cheng in front of her, and said, “Yi Cheng, I'm dizzy.” Su Yi Cheng took a look at her, circled the steering wheel, and stopped directly in front of the clinic building.

He got out of the back seat and looked at her and asked, “Can you walk?”

Ling Ran looked at him in the eyes, shook her head and said, “My feet hurt.”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng had no other way, only picked her up again and went into the outpatient building.

Leaning in his arms, Ling Ran's hand went around his neck, satisfied in his arms, gently said, “Yi Cheng, how long has it been since you held me like this.”

Su Yi Cheng did not speak, only looked ahead, the expression in his face cold and serious.

“Yi Cheng I missed you so much.” Ling Ran said softly, burrowing herself deeper into his arms.

He directly carried her into the emergency room, because it was night time, there was not a lot of people in the emergency room. The doctor on duty heard the sound over, carefully checked on Ling Ran. In fact, it was nothing big, the cut on her forehead was not big, nor deep, so it does not need st.i.tches. Just wipe some iodine to disinfect it and it should not be much of a problem. As for the foot injury, it was slightly red and swollen, the preliminary conclusion is that it might be a sprain.

When they were disinfecting the wound, when the the nurse held the wipe on Ling Ran's wound, only heard Ling Ran cry somewhat exaggerated, hands non-stop reached out to Su Yi Cheng, her face also full of grievance.

Su Yi Cheng stood indifferently, did not approach her, only stood to the side to ask the doctor about the situation.

After treating the wound on her forehead, Ling Ran felt that her headache was still intense, so the doctor suggested that she get an X-ray done, and get an X-ray for her foot as well. Although it was a small wound, the doctor suggested that Ling Ran get a line. As they were setting up the IV, Su Yi Cheng helped her call someone from her home, to get either Mrs. Ling or Ling Lin to come and take care of her.

But Ling Ran refused, and a.s.serted that her mother and sister were busy because of the thing with her father, they were now going to the province to see if there are any friends who can help, and were not in Jiang City.

Su Yi Cheng raised his hand to look at his watch. It was past 11 o'clock. He wanted to give An Ran a call, and tried to take out the phone from his pocket only to realize he had left it in the car. He got up and wanted to find a phone so he could call An Ran, but as he got up and was about to go, Ling Ran loudly called out from the infusion room and somewhat nervously asked him if he was going to leave her.

Su Yi Cheng explained, that he just wanted to out and make a phone call.

But Ling Ran did not listen, she was a little emotional, while shouting and accusing, “Su Yi Cheng, you made me like this and now you want to leave me here regardless of it! Don't forget, it's your car that hit me!”

Although it was late in the night, but the infusion hall still had some people sitting around. At first everyone was getting a little drowsy, but upon Ling Ran's shout, their sleeping ghosts were immediately chased away. Everyone in the hall started to look to their side. There was a middle-aged aunt who looked at Su Yi Cheng and blamed, “Young man, you are so outrageous. It's already nice enough that the person you hit did not press charges, you don't even want to see the victim, dignified people have morals, you being like this is immoral!”

Several others also agreed with the auntie, and some people even specially came over to look at Su Yi Cheng, said that they would be witness for Ling Ran in case the perpetrator got scared and runs away.

Su Yi Cheng had a difficult expression on his face, could only helplessly sit aside, and accompany Ling Ran as she goes through two IV bags.

The X-rays showed that Ling Ran's forehead only had a slight bruise, and there was no concussion or anything like that. The foot injury was only a sprain, did not get to the bones. But Ling Ran still insisted that her head was hurting intensely, so the doctor could only smile helplessly, said that the machine would not lie.

Su Yi Cheng looked at Ling Ran, turned to face the doctor and said, “Doctor, please arrange a bed for her.” He simply has no time for Ling Ran to waste, if she truly has head pain then she should just stay in the hospital, anyway doctors and nurses are here.

The doctor glanced at him, then looked at Ling Ran, and advised, "According to her current condition there is no need for hospitalization, moreover we are scarce on hospital beds right now, there are quite a lot of patients who need a bed but are in the hallway right now. If you insist on staying in the hospital to be more at ease, then I can make a bed for you in the hallway.”

Hearing that, Su Yi Cheng did not speak, just turned to look at Ling Ran, only to see Ling Ran's mouth twitching at the corner. She said, “No, maybe it will stop hurting tomorrow. I will go home.”

Su Yi Cheng did not make any comments, only took the list from the doctor and went straight to the pharmacy to get the medicine.

When he came back again, Ling Ran still said that her foot still hurt, really could not walk.

Su Yi Cheng frowned, and finally carried her up and out of the hospital.

Sitting in the car, Su Yi Cheng turned the car around to drive Ling Ran back, suddenly heard Ling Ran say that she no longer lived there, had moved away.

Su Yi Cheng looked into her eyes, and did not ask much, only asked her the address of where she now lives.

Ling Ran casually said an address, waited for Su Yi Cheng to drive the car to that place, only to find that the original place that she told him was a small hotel. He frowned and looked at her.

Ling Ran's eyes twinkled a little, just said, “Don't look at me like that, the place I lived in before was secretly bought for me by my father, he is now stepping down, can I still go back? It was sealed up a long time ago, and now our family of three can only squeeze into this small hotel.”

Su Yi Cheng always felt that there was something wrong, but now he has not thought much about it, what he wants to do most now was to hurry back to find An Ran. He did not say much, just got out of the car and opened the door and picked up Ling Ran and walked toward the hotel.

When they were walking up the stairs, Ling Ran deliberately blew in his ear, saying that she would be afraid at night. The meaning could not be more obvious. That hand also began to move uneasily in front of his chest.

Su Yi Cheng directly stopped in the corridor, eyed her coldly, his tone cold to the freezing point said, “Ling Ran, believe it or not I will throw you here.”

Hearing that Ling Ran curled her lips, did not dare to mess around anymore.

He brought her directly to the door of her hotel, Su Yi Cheng did not go in, his head did not even turn around to look at her as he ran down the stairs. He ignored Ling Ran's call behind him.

When he sat down in the car again he found the cell phone that he had thrown aside earlier. He was just about to call An Ran, but looked at the time and saw that it was too late, finally decided not to. Then he did not delay more than a minute, directly started the car to drive home. The Su Yi Cheng who would normally abide traffic laws was now driving over the speed limit.

Su Yi Cheng retold everything that happened last night to An Ran, and then quietly hugged her, for a long time did not speak.

An Ran leaned into his embrace. A while later, faintly said, “I believe you.”

Those words, as he was holding her, the corner of Su Yi Cheng's mouth rose to a faint smile. He tightened his hug on her.

After a while, An Ran retreated from his arms, looked at him with worry and asked, “This time the issue is so big, won't that impact you ah!”

Su Yi Cheng looked at her, reached out and touched her face, just said, “Don't worry, I can handle it.”

An Ran sighed, shook her head and said, “Do you think the picture and video was uploaded by Ling Ran?” As she was listening to him, it seemed as if everything was designed by Ling Ran, that timing of going to the hotel, how coincidental was it that someone was there to take a picture, not only that but the angles of the picture was so accurate, as if they knew where they were going to enter.

“Apart from her, I can't think of anyone else.” Perhaps she had everything planned from the start, starting from when she came to him to help her father. Last night she deliberately came to find him, because the day before yesterday Secretary Zheng did not screen her, so directly let her into the office, and then deliberately told him those thing, and even purposely ran out to his car and got hit. Clearly she only sustained a slight bruise but she purposely pretended to be unconscious, creating all the conditions for him to finally carry her to the hotel, then had previously arranged people there at that angle to secretly take photos.

But that kind of video, the narrative towards her won't be good. “After all she is a woman, having that kind of video out, how are people going to look at her now ah, she really was not thinking clearly. How could Ling Ran do this, to disregard her own reputation, just for revenge? Even if the revenge was successful, doesn't she know that she has lost a lot more?”

Su Yi Cheng reached out to stroke her hair, smiled and said, “Alright, don't think about it, I will resolve this matter. But avoid going out these next few days, I presume the media will be chasing and running around.”

An Ran nodded, “En, I understand.” After speaking, she leaned her head against his chest again, the two sat there quietly.

Today Su Yi Cheng did not go back to the office, just talked through the phone with Secretary Zheng. Secretary Zheng said that they already received 100 calls today, all of them were to inquire about the video and picture. Even though they already reported the post and had it taken down, it had already been seen by many people, and now all of Jiang City was talking about the pictures of the Jiang City Mayor, and the discussion did not just stay online on the forums, but were being shared on Weibo as well, thus, this matter had spread nationwide.

Some people had investigated and found out the woman in the video was Ling Ran, not only did they clearly reveal her background and ident.i.ty, they even found out about Ling Ran and Su Yi Cheng's past. Indeed, this development caught everyone off guard, this kind of matter broke out, not only Jiang City but the entire country is in an uproar. The online photo was frantically retweeted, netizens became worked up and scolded, some were just watching the lively play, some were standing G.o.d's point of view to condemn them, it could be said that all kinds of things were being hurled at them.

On the government's side, they immediately issued a statement to say that the person in the video was definitely not Su Yi Cheng. In addition to that they specifically noted that the matter has been transferred to the Public Security Bureau. The city government will thoroughly track it down to the end.

In addition, Secretary Zhang also called Su Yi Cheng immediately, first rebuking him for not paying attention to the problems in his life style, and informed him that before this matter is thoroughly investigated, he needs to stop his work.

Su Yi Cheng had no objection, but stressed that the person in the video was not him.

An Ran stood by the window, frowning and looking downstairs. She can clearly see the news van at the gate, the media reporters ambushed downstairs, waiting for them to go out and then swarm them to let them express their views and opinion on the matter.

She gently sighed, did not turn, and felt a familiar embrace. The warm breath spilled into her ears and asked, “What are you looking at?”

The whole person leaned and relaxed into his arms, smiled and said, “Looking at the people, for work, who are standing downstairs for us.”

“In a few days the heat of this matter will dissipate, and they will also dissipate.” Su Yi Cheng said gently and faintly.

An Ran nodded, only said, “It's just inconvenient for Auntie Zhang, she still has to come back every day, and always has to be asked all of these questions.”

“En.” Su Yi Cheng nodded in response, “Auntie Zhang—”

At this time when he was about to say something, the cell phone in his pocket suddenly started to ring. He let go of An Ran, and took out his phone. The caller ID displayed ‘Home', it was a call from the courtyard.

“It's probably mom.” Looking at An Ran, Su Yi Cheng answered the phone directly.”

“h.e.l.lo.”

“Ai.” On the other side of the phone, Qin Yi sighed heavily, then said, “Ah Cheng, you have to come home immediately, your grandpa and your father have something to ask you.”

“Okay.” Su Yi Cheng answered directly. In fact, when he saw the call, he already knew what the call was going to be about.

---END OF CHAPTER---