You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 54 Part 3

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 54 Part 3

When Ruan Yu went down to the lobby, she saw Li Shican sitting on an armchair playing with his cell phone. He looked up to glance at her when he noticed her walking out of the elevator.

Ruan Yu was a little taken aback seeing him there, but soon she understood why.

He probably had come down to the lobby right when the meeting adjourned to make sure she got home safely.

Though Ruan Yu felt that it was an overreaction, she looked at him back with gratitude.

Ruan Yu walked out of the lobby, got on the passenger side of Xu Huaisong’s car and fastened the seatbelt, but the car wasn’t moving.

Xu Huaisong was tilting his head, looking at the direction of the lobby.

Ruan Yu looked over and saw Li Shican glance over at their direction, then turned around to leave with his cell phone.

Ruan Yu explained: “He’s here because……”

“I know.” Xu Huaisong interrupted her.

Though there was some distance between him and Li Shican, he knew exactly Li Shican’s intentions from a glance.

Xu Huaisong said: “That’s good. With him around, it’s much safer. Your safety is the primary concern.”

Ruan Yu glanced at his facial expression and felt more at ease seeing that he was truly appreciative of Li’s gesture. She didn’t say anything more but leaned her head against the back of the seat.

Xu Huaisong turned his head and saw Ruan Yu seem a little down. He asked: “What’s wrong?”

Ruan Yu opened her mouth but stopped herself. She was quiet for a moment then shook her head: “Nothing, I’m just tired from the meeting.”

“Then, let’s not go home and make dinner. Let’s eat out tonight.”

“En.”

Xu Huaisong started the car and slowly merged into the traffic.

Ruan Yu turned her head to look outside the window. She watched the sky getting darker and darker, the tall street lights lining the road lit up one by one. It was just like at noon when Lu Shenglan had shed the light on Xu Huaisong’s world, which she had never seen before, with her plain description one sentence after another.

She said: “You probably don’t know this but at first when Huaisong chose to study law, he didn’t really understand his father from the beginning. At the time, he also felt that Uncle Xu was a disreputable person who ‘takes money to avert misfortune for people.’[1] Because of that, he initially wanted to be a different kind of lawyer from his father when he chose to study law in the US. Looking back now, it probably seemed somewhat childish and absurd.”

“The lives of Asians over there aren’t that easy. I’m alright with it because I grew up there and have a lot of friends in schools. But he doesn’t have that, he’s all by himself. When he suffers discrimination or unfair treatment, he could only speak for himself with his achievements.”

“To be fair, Americans do buy that. When he kept being the top of his classes, they became more and more accepting of him, saying that this Chinese young man is a genius. What they didn’t know is that this genius had been admitted to the hospital twice for over exhaustion.”

“Later, he graduated as the top of his class and passed the toughest bar exam in the US. As you probably have guessed, he had a lot of friction and numerous clashes with his father ever since he decided to study law. However, after he finally became an attorney, he gradually followed his father’s path step by step. He began to understand his father’s dilemma after his rough edges had finally been smoothed out.”

“Uncle Xu’s sudden stroke took everyone by surprise. The day when his father was diagnosed as having vascular dementia, Huaisong sat in the hospital in a daze for a whole night. Later, he took over all of his father’s cases, everyone of them. He didn’t say anything but I could tell that from that time on, he had truly placed his heart into them. Being a lawyer isn’t simply a job for him now, but a career.”

“You probably couldn’t imagine a person like him would take to smoking cigarettes. He picked up the habit right after Uncle Xu fell ill. In the first couple years right afterwards, the stress was tremendous on him and he had to rely on cigarettes to get by. It wasn’t until the third year that he was finally back to a more normal state and quit smoking.”

“The Xu Huaisong you’ve seen now is a person who shines in front of you after eight years of hard work through numerous hardships. He is now in a position that he could come back as he wishes but it doesn’t mean that it’s easy for him to give up everything over there.”

“No one else knows about all these things. If I don’t tell you, he probably would never mention them to you either. However, I feel it’s probably better for me to tell all these than for you to never know them. In any case, there’s no way we can become friends anyway.”

“In the end, I have to say one more thing you probably don’t like to hear. Perhaps he truly is willing to cut off what he has worked for eight years just like that, but it really isn’t something you should take for granted. If you still won’t consider moving to the US for him, then, at least, you should cherish the sacrifice he has made for you.”

Ruan Yu pressed her lips tightly and watched the traffic outside the window while gripping the passport she had in her purse. 

[1]: The translation is pretty straight forward but it’s a Chinese idiom, hence the quotes. 拿人钱财，替人消灾 (ná rén qiáncái, tì rén xiāo zāi), meaning someone who will do anything as long as there’s a person willing to pay them for it.

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