You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 23 Part 1

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 23 Part 1

Two days later, Ruan Yu’s case went smoothly in court. Cen Sisi didn’t show up in court, nor even had a response to the charges. The trial was basically going through all the necessary legal proceedings.

Since the plaintiff had solid evidence to support the case and the defendant had voluntarily given up on defending, the court decided in favor of the plaintiff a week later.

Ruan Yu posted the final judgement on Weibo and thus concluded the whole incident. Liu Mao invited her to dinner downtown that night.

Liu Mao’s excuse was to celebrate. The reason Ruan Yu agreed to it was to thank him for all the trouble.

As for Xu Huaisong, Ruan Yu figured he was probably in the US. She nevertheless sent a message to him before she left for downtown to tell him the result of the case and thank him.

Xu Huaisong replied with a voice message: “Later, I’ll also……”

His voice abruptly interrupted by a female voice in the background: “Huaisong, you think……”

The voice message was cut off then. 

Three seconds later, the voice message was deleted.

Ruan Yu was a little confused. What was going on?

She fixed her eyes on the cell phone and waited quietly for a few minutes. There was no reply. She pretended that she hadn’t heard the previous voice message and typed: [Mr. Xu, what did you delete?]

Xu Huaisong: [Nothing.]

Then, there was no more.

Somehow, Ruan Yu was bothered by the interrupted message. She became absent-minded all the way till she arrived at the restaurant.

The female voice sounded like it was from a young woman, so it couldn’t be Tao Rong.

The female voice called him “Huaisong”, therefore it must be a Chinese woman.

She sounded rather casual as she addressed him, so she might know him well.

Then, what was her relationship with Xu Huaisong?

Just when the case was over and their paths shouldn’t cross anymore, Ruan Yu suddenly realized that for the past month or so she didn’t know whether Xu Huaisong was still single or not.

Now when she thought back carefully, there was one time when she was video chatting with him and he said he was going to get something to eat. Less than two minutes later, he came back with a plate full of pasta. Based on that information, she could be certain that he hadn’t cooked the pasta.

In other words, he wasn’t at home by himself.

Furthermore, the cat at his home, he had said that it wasn’t his cat. At the time, Ruan Yu thought it must’ve been a friend’s cat who had asked him to babysit. Now, she figured the cat might very well belong to the lady of the house?

Ruan Yu carefully recalled every detail of her interactions with him recently. She felt that she had overlooked many things while she was under stress from the lawsuit. Liu Mao waved his hand in front of her and asked: “What’s wrong?”

Ruan Yu came out of her wandering mind and discovered that she had sat in front of Liu Mao and had been spacing out for a while.

The waitress was standing at the side of the table looking at her with a smile, waiting for her to order.

She took a look at the menu and saw a lot of check marks on it. She said: “Ah, that’s a lot. How can two people finish all that?”

Liu Mao was surprised: “Two people?” 

Ruan Yu was the one who was surprised now: “Aren’t we just two people?”

“Didn’t I just say that Huaisong will come a little later on?”

She didn’t hear that at all.

She made a short laugh: “Hehe, I mean, I have a small appetite and you don’t have to count me. How can you two eat all that?”

The waitress left with the menu.

To cover up her embarrassment, Ruan Yu gulped some water and asked: “Hasn’t he gone back to San Francisco?”

“He came back yesterday after he was done with the case over there.”

Ruan Yu cleared her throat: “So busy. Does he always fly back and forth like this?”

Liu Mao smiled: “No, he used to come back once a year.”

“Oh, then does he in the US……”

Ruan Yu was going to ask whether he has a family in the US. But before she could complete her sentence, her cell phone started ringing. It was from Shen Mingying.

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