You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 5 Part 3

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 5 Part 3

Liu Mao’s voice interrupted her thoughts. Liu Mao had noticed where Ruan Yu’s eyes had landed and realized that he hadn’t been a proper “host”. He said: “Ah, let me introduce……”

The man on the sofa seemed to hesitate for a second, but he stood up and turned around.

Even though her heart had already told her, Ruan Yu finally froze in place when her eyes landed on the face of the man across from her. 

It was summertime and the room was air conditioned. Yet the blood throughout her body seemed to have surged up in an instant, she felt her body heat up and her head grow dizzy.

It was like the Three Gorges Dam had suddenly opened its floodgates; all she could hear in her ears was the sound the earth shaking.

The two locked eyes in the air. As if she had been burned by something, her hands let loose and the semi transparent file folder she was holding in her arms fell to the ground and all the papers inside scattered on the ground.

He had thin lips, flat eyebrows, and a deep set of eyes. It was that face.

Xu Huaisong?

How could he be Xu Huaisong?

The senior partner Liu Mao mentioned was Xu Huaisong?

Those questions jabbed at the bottom of her heart. Ruan Yu almost wanted to rub her eyes. Liu Mao moving to pick up the file folder brought her back to her senses. She hurriedly bent down and said in a daze: “Sorry…… Let me get them.”

Liu Mao too was quite baffled by the situation. He hadn’t even introduced the two to each other. What was going on with these two people?

Ruan Yu buried her head as she gathered her papers while randomly looking around. She glanced at the pair of polished shoes that were nearby. She seemed to feel the eyes of the man were lingering on the top of her head, it felt like it was boring through her head.

It shouldn’t be Xu Huaisong? Could it be that she was so into the story she was writing that she had mistaken this man for Xu Huaisong? 

Hadn’t he disappeared for eight years already?

She gathered all the papers and held them in her arms before straightening up with the hope that this man wasn’t Xu Huaisong after all. Liu Mao also straightened up and looked at the other two people with a confused look: “You two know each other?”

Xu Huaisong moved his eyes away from Ruan Yu and opened his mouth, about to say something. But before he could utter a word, he heard Ruan Yu rush to answer: “We don’t, we don’t……”

She seemed a little uncomfortable with the answer and cast her eyes downwards after saying so. She didn’t get to see the slightly raised eyebrows on Xu Huaisong’s face.

After a moment of silence, she, while looking down on the floor, heard him say: “En. We don’t know each other.”

Even the voice sounded very much like Xu Huaisong’s.

Ruan Yu felt like she was going to suffocate. Liu Mao was trying to smooth over the incredibly awkward atmosphere and smiled at Ruan Yu: “Then let me introduce him. This is the partner of our law firm, Xu Huaisong.”

Ruan Yu tugged the file folder in her arms tighter, raised her eyes, and nodded at the man in front of her: “How are you.”

Liu Mao introduced Ruan Yu next: “This is our client for the case, Miss Ruan.”

Xu Huaisong nodded: “How are you.”

Judging from the awkward interaction between the two, Liu Mao figured that they probably wouldn’t shake hands. Still puzzled, Liu Mao asked them to sit down instead. 

Ruan Yu walked towards the sofa with unsteady steps.

Actually, a few years ago, when she still had lingering feelings towards him, she had imagined that one day she would see him again-- --She pictured that they would meet at a street with falling flowers, or at an amusement park with a huge crowd, or at a beach where the sea meets the sky.

It should be romantic, gorgeous, and filled with wonderful colors.

It absolutely shouldn’t be like this.

She, a 26 year old “middle aged girl”, was casually wearing a white t-shirt and jeans while holding a stack of papers that contained all her fantasies about his body, and about his soul. Furthermore, she was about to proceed with a deep discussion on the legal issues with this man based on her fantasies.

It was too, too embarrassing.

As Ruan Yu was about to sit on the sofa, she suddenly straightened up. Both Xu Huaisong and Liu Mao, already seated, looked up at her.

Ruan Yu forced herself to calm down, tightened her hold on the file in her arms and looked down at them while speaking in no uncertain terms: “Both lawyers, as the saying goes, one should be lenient wherever it’s possible; with a little forbearance there will be calm and peace, take a little step back and you will have open seas and clear skies; better save one life than build a seven-story pagoda……”

Xu Huaisong’s eyebrows raised up again. The eyes behind his gold rim eyeglasses gradually became darker and darker but quickly returned to normal.

Ruan Yu braced herself as she timidly continued with her lie: “I mean, I suddenly don’t want to file a suit……”

Translated by Team DHH at http://dhh-workshop.blogspot.com.