Marriage First, True Love Later

Anran watched his figure disappear behind the door, and her heart, which was in her throat, finally subsided.

She turned around and took a look at the room. The white walls were unadorned and had no wallpaper whatsoever. The large 1.8-meter bed was covered with gray sheets. The cabinets all had sharp corners. The balcony of the room was equipped with a small coffee table and rattan chairs. The whole room had an overwhelmingly masculine vibe to it.

Anran opened the black and white wardrobe, in which monochromatic shirts and suits hung neatly in a row. Anran found casual loungewear in another cabinet, although the color appeared rather plain to her. She took out a black T-shirt and put it to her chest for measurement. It was more than a size larger than what she was used to wearing. In fact, Su Yicheng was very fit and was neither too thin nor overweight. However, he was very tall, at a height of 180 centimeters. Compared to Anran’s height of 167, he was naturally more than a full head taller than her.

Anran continued rummaging, but she discovered that all the T-shirts were practically the same size, so it was unlikely that she would find a T-shirt of her size. In the end, she decided that any random T-shirt would suffice for the moment.

The bathroom in the room was not particularly large, and there was no bathtub. There was only a small shower room. The countertop outside the shower room was cleaned and tidy, and only a toothbrush, tooth cup, and men’s facial cleanser were placed on top of it. There was nothing remotely feminine in sight.

Anran took a quick shower and put on Su Yicheng’s T-shirt. The T-shirt was so wide that she could have worn it as a dress, but wearing it was more comfortable than she had expected.

In fact, Anran was a bit tired today. She had barely slept the night before, and along with what had happened at the construction site that afternoon, she was overwhelmed with sleepiness due to fatigue and exhaustion even though it wasn’t late in the day yet.

She lifted the covers and laid on the bed. The covers had a minty scent, which smelled nice and refreshing to her. Anran closed her eyes and soon fell asleep.

In the study, Su Yicheng was still dealing with various official documents, and the densely packed text on the documents gave him mental exhaustion at first. But since he had come to where he was today, step by step, he had already amassed the ability to take in ten lines at a glance.

The cell phone on the desk rang with a call from the compound. He didn’t even need to answer to know that the call was from that old lady at the compound.

“Hey, Mom.” Su Yicheng picked up the cell phone and leaned on the chair with fatigue. His hands pinched his brows.

“Yicheng, I heard Yijiao talking about some ‘sister-in-law’. Do you really have a suitress?” Qin Yun asked straightforwardly on the phone. Only yesterday she had thought he was joking; after all, he hadn’t dated anyone since that incident. He barely even socialized with his female friends. He was always procrastinating about his marriage, and no matter how much she tried using various ways to introduce him to women, he obstinately refused to reciprocate. By now, she was literally dying of anxiety.

Su Yicheng sighed. He knew he shouldn’t have expected Yijiao to keep any secrets. She had just promised him at noon that she wouldn’t tell a soul, yet barely half a day had passed before she sold him out. Fortunately, he hadn’t planned on keeping it a secret for long either.

“Yeah, I have a woman in mind, so you don’t need to keep stressing over my marriage anymore, Mom,” Su Yicheng said.

Qin Yun was overjoyed to hear this, and asked eagerly, “Oh, so the rumor is true, indeed! What family is the girl from? How old is she? What is her occupation? Is she pretty?”

“Mom.” Su Yicheng broke out in laughter, shook his head, and simply said, “Just a girl from an ordinary family. She’s a nice girl.”

“If she’s from an ordinary family, then so be it. There’s nothing wrong with being from an ordinary family. What truly matters is that her family should have a clean reputation, and she should be a high-minded individual,” Qin Yun told him.

“Yes, I know.” Su Yicheng nodded.

“Ah—Cheng, have you returned yet? How about you bring that girl home with you so I can get a look at her.” Qin Yun really could barely contain her anticipation. She had been hoping for a daughter-in-law for years, especially since while other families’ sons of similar age already had school-aged children, she still had to worry about her son’s marriage prospects.

“Mom!” Su Yicheng really did not know how to deal with his mom’s capriciousness. “Mom, look at what time it is. I have been overexerting myself today, and I just came back. Besides, Anran is tired as well and has just fallen asleep. How about tomorrow? I’ll bring Anran home then.” Then, as if he suddenly thought of something, he retorted,” Uh, I actually have events to attend tomorrow night, so I’ll bring her home to see you, Dad and Grandpa the day after tomorrow. Rest assured, this time I’ll—”

“Wait, wait.” Qin Yun seemed to hear something wrong and interrupted Su Yicheng before he could finish. She asked, “You said she was tired? Is she asleep right now?”

After hearing this, Su Yicheng immediately knew what she was really trying to ask and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. How come he never knew that his mother had become so incognizant with young people’s trains of thought and had become such a progressive thinker? He asked with a grin, “Mom, aren’t you overthinking this a little too much?”

“Oh, I wasn’t overthinking anything. You said it yourself.” Qin Yun burst out laughing while defending herself and asked, “Son, do you mean that the girl is in your house right now?”

“Yes, but it’s not what you think.” Although they nearly went there, it didn’t work out in the end.

“Okay, Mom knows now, I didn’t think too much about it.” Qin Yun said while giggling, and she felt ecstatic, “All right then, it’s getting late. I’m going to bed now, and you should go to bed early as well; don’t overexert yourself too much.”

The corners of Su Yicheng’s mouth twitched, especially when he heard his mother saying “don’t overexert yourself too much”. If only she knew how much he wished he actually could.

After he hung up the phone, he was no longer in the mood to continue looking at the documents again. He couldn’t help but start pondering over the ambivalent words his mother used, and then recall how soft and tender she felt in his arms. He felt deeply agitated inside. “Damn it!” Su Yicheng cursed under his breath, placed down the document in his hand, and headed directly toward the bathroom outside in order to calm himself.

After returning to the bedroom again after taking a shower, he pushed open the door to see Anran lying on her side, fast asleep and taking long, even breaths. Su Yicheng lifted the covers on the other side of the bed, raised her head slightly, stretched his arms over his neck to let her rest on him, then wrapped his hands around her waist to pull her into his embrace.

Anran seemed really tired and was sleeping very soundly. Even after Su Yicheng had moved her around quite a bit, she still didn’t show the slightest signs of awakening.

In the darkness, Su Yicheng curled the corners of his mouth. Bending his head, he planted a kiss on her head. Then, sniffing the scent of her hair, he closed his eyes to sleep beside her.

He slept peacefully that night without dreaming or waking up in between. But being awakened by someone during a deep sleep was a terrible thing.

The alarm clock started blaring loudly and was intermixed with the sound of knocking. Anran shot up from the bed. She was still drowsy, but nonetheless she lifted the covers and prepared to get out of bed.

Suddenly, a force behind her pulled her back and whispered in her ear, “You continue sleeping. I’ll open the door.”

All of her drowsiness vanished the instant she heard the voice beside her ears, and her pupils dilated in alarm. Looking at the man in front of her with a faint smile on his face, she couldn’t help but widen her eyes and exclaim, “Su Yicheng, what are you doing here?!”