TIL - 55

Wen Huo, wearing a dress and with bare legs, was only warm on her upper body in the down jacket. Soon her lower body felt cold, so she put her legs between Chen Cheng’s to warm them up. Chen Cheng immediately picked her up, put her in the car, and turned on the heat.

Wen Huo, barefoot, squatted in the passenger seat, not looking at him, but staring straight ahead. She couldn’t hide the smile on her face, but she still tried to pretend. “Why did you come to find me?”

Chen Cheng reached for her hand. “Can you sleep?”

Wen Huo dodged his hand and clasped her own hands together, giving him no opportunity to hold them. “Don’t listen to Cheng Cuo’s nonsense. I can sleep with anyone. I don’t need to be with just you.”

Chen Cheng’s hands were large enough to envelop both of hers. “I can’t sleep without you.”

Wen Huo turned her face to the window. She was afraid Chen Cheng would see her smiling, and then he wouldn’t believe it if she tried to act tough again. She couldn’t let him get too arrogant. While she was still thinking, Chen Cheng had already picked her up and placed her on his lap. She was still in a squatting position. He wrapped his arms around her legs from behind and pulled her directly onto his lap.

Wen Huo’s eyes widened. By the time she realized what was happening, she was already sitting on Chen Cheng’s lap. She looked at his face, which was now so close. “What are you doing?”

Chen Cheng held her tight. “Just holding you.”

Wen Huo was sitting right on his… thing. She could feel a large lump there. She had been with him for a long time this afternoon; she couldn’t do it again. He was her man now, so she had to be careful with him. Before, she thought he belonged to Han Bailu, so she didn’t have to save him for anyone. Now that he was hers, she had to be more frugal. Women had to be good with money.

Chen Cheng saw her eyes darting around and knew she was up to no good. “What are you thinking about?”

Wen Huo came back to her senses, wrapped her arms around his neck, and looked at his handsome face. “Teacher Chen.”

“Mmm.”

Wen Huo leaned in close to his ear and whispered, “Can you call me ‘baby’ one more time?”

“What’s in it for me?”

“What do you want to hear? I’ll call you anything you want. I’ve said it so many times in bed; anything else you can think of, I’ll do it.”

Chen Cheng saw Wen Huo with her head tilted, looking so obedient, and couldn’t resist kissing her on the lips. Wen Huo touched her lips belatedly. “What are you doing?”

Chen Cheng often saw her without makeup, and she didn’t wear it much. Her bare face was very beautiful. He didn’t think he was biased. Even when he didn’t like her before, she had still managed to captivate him with a single glance in the morning.

Wen Huo raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you want as a reward?”

“One more time.”

Wen Huo remembered when he first returned from Canada, he drank, kissed her, and said those same three words. It felt like a lifetime ago. While she was reminiscing, Chen Cheng’s kiss had already landed. Wen Huo had never kissed anyone but Chen Cheng, so she didn’t know what good kissing technique was like, but she felt incredibly comfortable when Chen Cheng kissed her.

When Chen Cheng had had enough, he looked at her reddened lips and hazy eyes and wanted to take her home. But he had only come to see her. Taking her home would be too greedy, so he bit her earlobe and whispered, “Come home with me? Baby.”

Wen Huo felt a tickle and pulled her neck back. “No.”

Chen Cheng reminded her, “You’re in my car right now.”

“What if I don’t want to? Can you still drive off?”

“Yes.”

He was so shameless. Wen Huo narrowed her eyes at him, thinking of what to say to scold him.

“Is that a yes?” Chen Cheng asked.

“If you’re just going to drive away anyway, why are you even asking me?”

“I want to hear you say yes.”

Wen Huo told him the truth. “My mom won’t agree. If I don’t go upstairs soon, she’ll come down and find me. If she sees me in your car, she’ll probably break your legs. If you’re crippled, what will I do?”

Chen Cheng understood that he wouldn’t be able to take her with him today. “What about tomorrow?”

“I’ll figure something out tomorrow.”

In the end, Chen Cheng could only watch as his little “thing” skipped and hopped toward the first-floor lobby. Wen Huo said goodbye to him before she left. “Bye-bye.”

Chen Cheng nodded and waved, feeling extremely reluctant, but there was nothing he could do. He was already on Ruan Lihong’s bad side.

As Wen Huo walked to the door, she thought, “Should I look back at him one more time? Just one glance, then I’ll go home and sleep.” She turned her head, intending to steal a quick look, but Chen Cheng was still there, watching her. She felt a little embarrassed, but looking at his face, she just couldn’t control herself. She ran back, jumped up, and wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. “Take me home! I don’t care what my mom says anymore!”

Chen Cheng’s hands held her butt, and he was holding her so carefully, like she was a family heirloom. “Are you sure?”

Wen Huo nodded, she was sure. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t watch Chen Cheng walk away. She had been suppressing herself and her feelings for him for too long. Even though she was crazy about him, she had found countless excuses to force herself not to love him. She was so wronged, and she was going to make up for it! From now on, she was going to get back all the time she had wasted.

Just as Chen Cheng opened the car door to put Wen Huo inside, Ruan Lihong came downstairs and caught them red-handed. The scene changed to Ruan Lihong standing in front of Chen Cheng with a very meek Wen Huo next to her. Chen Cheng was afraid she would scold Wen Huo when they got back, so he spoke first. “It’s my fault.”

Ruan Lihong glanced at him. “And why wouldn’t it be? Is my daughter at fault?”

Wen Huo wanted to explain for him. “Mom, it was me...”

Ruan Lihong snapped her head around. “You be quiet!” Wen Huo shut up.

Ruan Lihong had already said most of what she had to say to Chen Cheng during their visit to his house. Now she had nothing left to say. Plus, Wen Huo was also being disobedient by secretly meeting him, so she didn’t feel like she had the right to blame him relentlessly. She finally said, “Next time you come, just go straight upstairs. Don’t be so sneaky, making me think you’re up to no good with my daughter.”

Chen Cheng was obedient. “Okay.”

Wen Huo was still thinking about going home with Chen Cheng. Seeing that Ruan Lihong wasn’t too angry, she wanted to ask her, but one look from her mom made her immediately abandon the idea. She decided to take things slow.

Ruan Lihong led Wen Huo upstairs. After the door closed, she sat on a bar stool in the kitchen, fuming. She had known that Wen Huo had gone downstairs to secretly meet Chen Cheng, but she still couldn’t accept what she saw. This daughter was a lost cause.

Wen Huo couldn’t see Chen Cheng anymore, and her rationality returned. She made a cup of hot milk for Ruan Lihong and brought it to her. “Mom.”

Ruan Lihong pushed the milk away, refusing to drink it. Wen Huo pushed it back to her. “Mom.” Ruan Lihong looked away, not wanting to look at her. Wen Huo went to stand in front of her and held her hand. “Mom.”

Ruan Lihong’s eyes suddenly became teary. “What? Your wings have grown, you have a boyfriend, and your mind is full of men. Why are you calling me? Do you even remember who I am?”

Wen Huo knew. “Mom, please don’t be like this.”

Ruan Lihong’s heart ached for her. She stopped putting on a tough front and reached out to brush the stray hairs from Wen Huo’s face. “Huohuo, I’m afraid you’ll be sad later, do you understand?”

Wen Huo understood. “I was also afraid of getting hurt at first. He’s too formidable; he’s never lost before. I’m just a little person, not enough for him to scheme against. Han Bailu was someone who was with him, and look at how she ended up. I was afraid the same thing would happen to me.”

This was exactly what Ruan Lihong was worried about. “Then why are you doing this?”

Wen Huo told her, “I can’t deny that I like him just because I’m afraid of getting hurt, can I?”

Ruan Lihong knew this was the case. “I have him in my heart, so I care that he took someone else to the film festival. So I care that he knew I wasn’t approaching him innocently, but still played along. So I care if he went on a business trip with someone else.” She lowered her head and looked at her toes. “Because I like him, I care.”

Ruan Lihong held both of her hands. “Can’t you like someone else? I don’t even have the confidence to win against a man like him. What if he bullies you in the future?”

Wen Huo accepted her fate. “It’s okay. I can be responsible for myself.”

Ruan Lihong was heartbroken. She pulled her into her arms and hugged her. “Huohuo, you’re going to be the death of me.” Wen Huo knew this was hard for Ruan Lihong. No matter how carefree she was, Wen Huo and Wen Bing were always her concerns. Now she was being asked to watch Wen Huo walk toward a nuclear weapon with incalculable destructive power, and she couldn’t do it. But Wen Huo didn’t want to leave Chen Cheng anymore. She didn’t. After realizing she had feelings for him, she looked back at the past two years and all she could remember were the good things about him.

She said to Ruan Lihong, “If I die by his hand one day, I will definitely take him with me. You know me. We can go to heaven together, but we’ll also go to hell together.” With that, Ruan Lihong knew that nothing she said would change her mind, so she stopped talking. In reality, she also knew that when Wen Huo hadn’t made a decision, not even eight horses could drag her back, and the same was true once she had made up her mind. She just couldn’t control her mouth. That’s how mothers are.

After that night, Ruan Lihong returned to Canada, leaving Wen Huo her house, her car, and everything she was supposed to have. She also left her the business she had planned to start in China. Wen Huo wasn’t a businesswoman and said she would likely lose all the money, but Ruan Lihong didn’t care; she was giving it to her to lose.

Before he left, Su He had a private conversation with Wen Huo. His expression was so serious that Wen Huo thought something had happened to him. Wen Huo’s relationship with Su He was not as close as with Su Di. They had just hung out together before, and after he returned to China, they lost touch. She rarely thought about him. When he suddenly started talking to her so seriously, she felt a little uncomfortable.

Su He told her, “If you ever get sad because of Chen Cheng, go back to Canada.”

Wen Huo was dismissive. “Okay.”

“I’m not joking.”

“Neither am I.”

Su He sighed. “You high-IQ people just think differently than normal people.”

“You’re not normal either. Don’t forget to see a doctor when you get back.”

Su He knew. “I’m taking medication. I can control it.”

“Mmm.”

Su He stopped talking about heavy topics and brought up Chen Cheng. “Do you know how I felt when I saw you two get back together?”

“How did you feel?”

“I was looking at your forum before, and one post perfectly captured how I felt. You were telling me seriously that you two had no chance, and you talked about how awful he was. I believed you and joined in on the badmouthing. Then the next day you two made up, and I was in a very awkward position. Do you understand that feeling? That’s what you’re like. You said you’d never get back with him, and then...”

Wen Huo didn’t admit it. “Did I?”

Su He rolled his eyes. “You totally did.”

Wen Huo thought his Chinese was getting better recently. “That’s your illusion.”

Su He was too lazy to argue. “Whatever. Anyway, I will never like him. But I also know that whether I like him or not doesn’t matter.”

Wen Huo said, “It’s enough that you like my mom. Take good care of her.”

Of course, Su He would take good care of her. “In your culture, you should call me ‘dad,’ right?”

Wen Huo refused. “We don’t have that culture. You need to stop looking at those forums.”

Su He remembered Ruan Lihong also saying that his identity was Wen Huo’s stepfather, and a stepfather was a dad. He was about to argue with her, but she pushed him toward the departure hall. “Hurry up and go.”

And just like that, Ruan Lihong and Su He went back to Canada. What Wen Huo didn’t know was that Ruan Lihong had given her all of her assets. She knew the Chen family was wealthy and powerful, and she didn’t want Wen Huo to feel inferior when she was with him. Su He had no objections. He didn’t love money; he loved Ruan Lihong.