You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 6 Part 2

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 6 Part 2

Liu Mao was confused, had he and Ruan Yu invited Xu Huaisong to lunch with them?

Ruan Yu was also wondering: “Did you two have a lunch date already?” Was that the reason why Xu Huaisong would assume he was invited to lunch with them?

Liu Mao was about to shake his head. But, for some reason that he couldn’t understand himself, he nodded instead and said: “Yeah, maybe we’ll do lunch next time then.”

Ruan Yu pointed outside of the door: “But he went down already.”

Liu Mao: “It’s alright.” After they went downstairs, Liu Mao explained to Xu Huaisong that he wasn’t going to have lunch with Ruan Yu and asked him to wait at the office till he came back from taking Ruan Yu home.

Xu Huaisong took a look at Ruan Yu behind Liu Mao, then turned to ask Liu Mao: “Is there a bed here?”

The question caught Liu Mao off guard. It felt like something wasn’t quite right even though it might’ve been because Xu Huaisong was suffering from jet lag: “You’re going to sleep at this hour?”

“En. Find me a hotel.” Xu Huaisong added: “I don’t have a driver’s license.”

It was obvious that he wanted Liu Mao to be his driver.

“Then, we’ll take Miss Ruan back first?”

“En.”

The three of them walked to the parking lot. Liu Mao’s Land Rover was gleaming, it looked like he had just had it waxed.

Liu Mao opened the door to the front passenger seat for Ruan Yu, but she hesitated.

On a non-business occasion, especially when Liu Mao had been her blind date, sitting in the front passenger seat seemed to suggest that there was something more to their relationship.

Ruan Yu wasn’t sure whether Liu Mao was doing this on purpose or not. She backed away one step and said to Xu Huaisong behind her: “Mr. Xu, you first?”

Xu Huaisong gave her a look, then looked to Liu Mao who stiffened. Xu Huaisong curved up his lips and mouthed to Liu Mao: Thank you, Mr. Liu. Then he quickly changed to a cold face and got in the front passenger seat.

Ruan Yu had already turned to go to the back seat and didn’t see Xu Huaisong’s petty act.

Liu Mao’s cheek twitched, however.

The car slowly drove out of the parking lot. Ruan Yu said after hesitating for a moment: “Mr. Liu, I’m not going back to my apartment, I’m going to my friend’s place. Would that be alright?”

The two men in the front seemed surprised. Ruan Yu thought her request might be a little too much for them. She hurriedly explained: “It won’t take any more of your time. The place is actually closer.”

Liu Mao also hurriedly said with a smile: “No problem. Send the address to my WeChat.”

Ruan Yu sent the location over.

The three of them remained silent the rest of the way. There was only the female voice of the GPS inside the car: “After 600 meters, turn left to……”

The car stopped at a red light. Liu Mao relaxed his hands on the steering wheel and turned to take a look at Xu Huaisong.

Xu Huaisong seemed to sense it and looked back at him with his chin slightly raised up.

When Liu Mao looked over at him again, he frowned and saw Xu Huaisong make a fist at an angle that the person in the back seat wouldn’t notice.

Liu Mao took a breath and looked in the back view mirror to check on Ruan Yu. Ruan Yu was looking outside of the window and didn’t notice the men in front. Liu Mao then mouthed: Rock, scissors, paper.

Then he did scissors while Xu Huaisong maintained his fist.

Liu Mao had lost. He softly coughed and took a look at the back view mirror: “May I ask which friend’s place is Miss Ruan going?”

Xu Huaisong gave him a look. -- --It seemed too direct.

Liu Mao looked back at him. -- --Then how should I ask?

Ruan Yu didn’t discover the “game” the two men were playing. She turned her head back after hearing Liu Mao’s question.

Xu Huaisong immediately straightened his back and the temperature on his face turned to zero again.

Liu Mao was wondering in his mind what had happened to this man today and why was he pretending to be aloof and serious all of sudden?

Before he could figure it out, he heard Ruan Yu’s voice: “Mingying, do you know her too? She’s the one who arranged for me to contact Zhikun through her friends.”

“Oh.” Liu Mao nodded: “I know. It’s Miss Shen.”

Liu Mao took a look at Xu Huaisong again, who was acting like he had nothing to do with this.-- --Alright, I asked, it was a female friend.

Yet Xu Huaisong didn’t look back at him this time. Instead, he turned to look outside the window with a lot of emotions at the bottom of his eyes.

Shen Mingying, he was surprised that he still remembered this person.

She was Ruan Yu’s best girl friend in high school. After so many years, he thought he had gotten over the past. But in the end, he didn’t even forget the name of her friend.

No one had said anything in the car until Ruan Yu got out of the car.

She pulled open the door and said thanks to the two men inside the car. Then she went up to Shen Mingying’s apartment and rang the doorbell in a rush.

Shen Mingying thought something had happened to her and said: “What’s wrong? The case didn’t go well?”

Ruan Yu, though she had tried to be calm all the way here, had totally lost it by now. She said with a crying face: “Mingying, do you know who I met?”

“Liu Mao? He’s confessed to you?”

Ruan Yu went up to pull on Shen Mingying’s sleeve and almost cried: “It’s Xu Huaisong…… I’ve met the three-dimensional Xu Huaisong!”

*

Liu Mao restarted the car and drove slowly out of the area. Then he stepped on the brake.

Xu Huaisong knew that Liu Mao finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

The very next second, Liu Mao turned to ask him: “You told someone to call me while we were in the office? You deliberately sent me away?”

Xu Huaisong chuckled: “It took you long enough to figure it out. What kind of lawyer are you?”

Liu Mao almost choked and it hurt in his lung. Baffled, he asked: “Your ex-girlfriend?”

Xu Huaisong seemed to have been surprised by how Liu Mao addressed Ruan Yu. The term “ex-girlfriend” went through his brain a few times. He turned his head to look at the tree-lined street outside and his eyes landed on a red telephone booth at the end of the road.

After a little while, he laughed and shamelessly said very slowly: “How do I put it……”

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