You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 66 Part 1

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 66 Part 1

Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu stayed in the bathroom staring at each other, unsure of what to do. One touched the nose and looked up at the ceiling and the other looked down at the tiles on the floor with tightly knit eyebrows.

Finally, Xu Huaisong hesitatingly opened the bathroom door.

Ruan Yu peeked out from behind him. She saw her parents were engaging in a heated discussion with their heads right next to each other. When they heard the opening of the door, they quickly separated as if they had been shocked. They continued to cook food in the hot pot as if nothing had happened and even turned their heads to smile amiably at Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu.

It was the kind of smile a teacher would have when he caught a student having a romantic relationship and wanted to guide the student without hurting their feelings too much.

Xu Huaisong cleared his throat lightly.

Ruan Yu followed him back to the table and gave her parents a hollow laugh: “I’m alright now. I rode in the car for too long today and was feeling a bit dizzy……”

Xu Huaisong moved his foot to touch Ruan Yu without moving his upper body to stop her from continuing with her explanation which seemed to make the situation even worse.

Ruan Yu was annoyed and gave him a glance: What?

Xu Huaisong was about to give her a hint with his eyes when he saw Ruan Chengru across from him bend down to pick up a bottle of distilled spirit from under the table and set it down on the table with a thud.

“......”

Ruan Yu was stunned by her father’s action: “Dad, you……”

“You just keep eating.” Ruan Chengru gave her a glance and interrupted her. Then he looked over to Xu Huaisong and earnestly said to him: “Huaisong, come, have a few cups with your teacher.”

Xu Huaisong sat up with a smile, nodded, and picked up the bottle, pouring the liquor into the cup.

Ruan Yu swallowed before saying: “Dad, you see, his stomach……” She stopped herself mid sentence realizing that she shouldn’t be too protective of her boyfriend in front of her father and hurriedly changed tactics: “......why are you so slow at pouring the liquor. Let me do it, let me.” She pulled the bottle away from Xu Huaisong’s hand as she spoke and carefully filled a third of the cup.

Xu Huaisong looked at her and used his fist to cover the smile on his lips. When he looked up though, he saw Ruan Chengru’s serious face and quickly wiped away the smile. He passed the cup of liquor to his teacher instead: “Sir.”

Ruan Yu still wanted to try to get him out of it: “Wait, wait, aren’t you going to be driving under the influence if you take a sip of this?”

Ruan Chengru replied for Xu Huaisong: “There's an empty room upstairs.”

“With such a high alcohol content, it’s possible that when he gets up tomorrow morning, he’ll still……”

Qu Lan cleared her throat and gave Ruan Yu a look: “Come, come with mom so we can get the bed ready upstairs.”

Ruan Yu: “Oh.” She slowly got up and gave Xu Huaisong a meaningful look before leaving the table: Take care.

Xu Huaisong clinked cups with Ruan Chengru and drank the whole cup of spirit without even blinking his eyes.

Ruan Chengru took a look at the direction of the stairs and suddenly blurted out: “Huaisong, I heard that Xiao Liu is your colleague. Then, do you know why I introduced Xiao Liu to Yuyu in the first place?”

Xu Huaisong quickly recalled the exchanges he had with Ruan Yu on the day of Mr. Ho’s birthday party.

– – “Then do you know why my father liked Mr. Liu?”

– – “Because he’s a lawyer?”

– – “It’s because he’s trustworthy and well-behaved, has a kind heart, never plays any tricks nor is he showy and wouldn’t take advantage of others. His actions speak louder than his words.”

Xu Huaisong recited what Ruan Yu had said about Liu Mao word by word.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 65 Part 3

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 65 Part 3

With one hand on the steering wheel, Xu Huaisong used his other hand to hold Ruan Yu’s hand and said, “Don’t think too much into it. Let the police do their work.”

After driving through the hills, they arrived at Ruan’s home. They didn’t mention anything about what they encountered earlier to Ruan’s parents who were quite happy to see them. The only thing was that while they were eating hot pot, Ruan Yu still felt a little nauseous.

Qu Lan noticed that Ruan Yu hadn’t touched much of the food. She frowned and asked: “What’s wrong, Yuyu? No appetite?”

Ruan Yu didn’t want her parents to worry too much about Zhou Jun’s case and slightly shook her head to say: “Um, I ate too much during afternoon tea at Huaisong’s home. I’m not that hungry yet.”

Xu Huaisong knew that she hadn’t eaten very much in the afternoon. It was because of what she had seen earlier that caused the problem.

He moved the two plates of bright red meat in front of her away and cooked some vegetables for her instead to put into her bowl.

Ruan Yu winked at him in appreciation of his thoughtfulness.

Ruan Chengru noticed it and also gave Qu Lan a look: these two kids seem to be hiding something from us.

Qu Lan: it looks like it……

With that thought in mind, Ruan Chengru continued thinking about it as he carried out a normal conversation with Xu Huaisong about his family, his parents’ health, and his sister’s grades.

With all the conversation, they didn’t touch much of the food on the table.

Qu Lan said to Ruan Chengru: “Hm, look at you, constantly talking to Huaisong that he didn’t even have time to move his chopsticks. Hurry, cook some beef for the kids.”

Ruan Chengru: “Oh, oh.” He picked up the beef plate and began placing them into the hot pot.

Ruan Yu looked up and saw the red meat. She instantly recalled the piece of arm she saw that evening. Her stomach slightly churned. She tried to hold it back but couldn’t. She turned her head away and covered her mouth to retch.

Xu Huaisong patted her back: “Do you need to go to the bathroom?” He looked up and saw Ruan Chengru and Qu Lan all look at him with eyes widening to the size of walnuts. They looked at him stiffly with astonishment.

Xu Huaisong was stunned.

Ruan Yu wasn’t feeling well and didn’t notice her parents’ reaction. She got up from the table and said: “Um, I’ll go to the bathroom.”

Xu Huaisong recovered and nodded to the two teachers before following Ruan Yu into the bathroom.

Ruan Yu used one hand to hold her stomach and the other hand to rest against the wash basin. She tried to vomit but nothing came out. She whispered with a sad face: “The moment I saw that reddish meat, it just reminded me……”

Xu Huaisong turned on the water for her to wash her face and helplessly said: “Your imagination is truly……” He stopped half way through his sentence: “Alright, I’ll eat all the meat after I’m back at the table so you don’t have to see them. Alright?”

Ruan Yu nodded. Xu Huaisong then asked her after remembering the look on her parents' faces: “By the way, why did your parents look at me with that kind of look?”

“I didn’t notice. What kind of look?”

“It’s like……” Xu Huaisong tried to recall: “It’s a look like ‘what did you do to our daughter, you animal’.”

The moment he finished describing it, both of them realized what her parents were thinking.

Oh, no, what a misunderstanding.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 65 Part 2

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 65 Part 2

Xu Huaisong took a look at Ruan Yu and was about to say that he was just joking when he noticed that half of the lanes ahead were blocked. There were several policemen around bushes near the roadside, some of them digging with shovels.

The smile quickly disappeared from his face and he frowned.

Ruan Yu also noticed the activity and was wondering what the police were doing. Then she saw a policeman with gloves pick up an item from the deep pit.

It was a muddy and decaying…… piece of an arm?

Ruan Yu gasped.

Xu Huaisong reached over to cover her eyes with his hand and sped up to drive past the scene.

Perhaps the sudden speeding caught the attention of the police. When the car was near the yellow taped area, a policeman with a badge gestured for the car to stop: “Mr. and Miss, sorry, but could you please show me your id cards.”

Xu Huaisong touched Ruan Yu’s head and indicated to her not to look outside the window. After he handed over the ids, the policeman was surprised: “What a coincidence, Lawyer Xu?”

Xu Huaisong nodded: “You know me?”

The policeman started laughing: “You’re quite famous among the police from that incident where you helped us catch a suspect. Plus that incident where you knocked on more than a dozen doors of 302s at Jinjiang Community when you were drunk is also quite famous in our office.”

“......”

Ruan Yu abruptly looked up at Xu Huaisong in confusion.

Xu Huaisong faintly cleared his throat and tried to change the topic: “Um, you guys are here on a case?”

“That’s right. A few days ago, a suspect who was on the run for half a year was caught over in Hu City at a concert. They asked us to work with them to investigate. That’s why we’re digging for bodies in the middle of nowhere during a holiday.” After complaining, he nodded to Xu Huaisong apologetically: “Sorry to trouble you, Lawyer Xu. You can pass now.”

Xu Huaisong didn’t move and said with a frown: “You mean that suspect had buried a body here half a year ago?”

The policeman nodded: “Right, he’s a seasoned criminal. After dismemberment, he buried body parts everywhere. We only found a half of an arm here.”

Remembering what she had seen earlier, Ruan Yu’s entire body shivered, goosebumps appeared all over her body.

The policeman: “Ur, sorry, sorry, I’ve scared the lady.”

Xu Huaisong turned his head to hold onto Ruan Yu’s hand, comforting her. But he continued to ask the policeman: “If it’s convenient, I would like to know the exact time when the suspect buried that piece of the arm.”

“Well…… I can’t really disclose the details……”

Xu Huaisong nodded: “Then just tell me, was it during the time of the Dragon Boat Festival.”

The policeman was surprised: “Lawyer Xu, how would you know?”

Even Ruan Yu looked up in surprise, having forgotten her fear.

Dragon Boat Festival, wasn’t it the day when Zhou Jun got into trouble?

Xu Huaisong became serious: “I think……there’s another case that I have to ask you guys to reopen an investigation for.”

By the time they left the scene, it was already getting dark.

It took a while before Ruan Yu could recover from the shock and asked: “Will this really have any connection to Zhou Jun’s case?”

Xu Huaisong shook his head: “I’m not sure. But, Zhang Jie and I did surmise one time that if Zhou Jun isn’t the real killer, then the real killer has to be a seasoned criminal since he could clean up the crime scene so well that there was no evidence left behind. In addition, a seasoned criminal usually commits a crime again to cover up the previous crime. The thing is, at the time we only investigated crimes that occurred in Hang City around that period of time and didn’t find anything that fit. So we gave up on the idea.”

What he didn’t expect was that now there was a criminal case in Hu City.

“What you mean is that the victim might’ve been killed because she accidentally found the killer burying the body parts there?”

“We can’t rule out the possibility of it.”

“But, the burial site and the place the victim got killed are not at the same spot, only along the same road.”

“If our surmise is correct, it’s only reasonable that after committing the second crime, the killer hurriedly cleaned up the scene then rushed to a new location to bury the parts. If it’s at the same location, the police should have found it when they first combed the scene.”

Ruan Yu agreed with his reasoning. Then she shivered again and touched the goosebumps on her arms.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 65 Part 1

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 65 Part 1

Ruan Yu’s afternoon meeting didn’t finish until dusk.

It was close to the winter solstice and daytime was especially short. She waited at the front of Global Filming for about five minutes and the sky had already turned a shade darker.

Xu Huaisong was running late because he was caught in traffic. By the time Ruan Yu got in his car, both of her hands were reddish from the cold breeze.

After closing the car door, Ruan Yu rubbed her hands against the warm air coming from the heater. She asked at the same time: “How did the trial go today?”

“Pretty good.” Xu Huaisong didn’t start the car, instead he adjusted the direction of the flow of the warm air. He turned to lift Ruan Yu’s hands and rubbed them lightly. After a while, he lowered his head to blow air into her palms and noticed that the scabs on her hand were almost gone. He then asked: “I have to go to the US after the winter solstice. When shall I go visit your parents?”

“How about your parents, aren’t you going home for the winter solstice?[1]”

“Su City at noon and Hang City at night.”

“That would be too tiring for you to drive. It would be fine for you to go visit after you come back from the US. What’s the hurry?”

Xu Huaisong laughed: “How can I not go visit on such an important day? Don’t let me give your parents bad impressions.”

Ruan Yu: “Oh.” She looked away and smiled. Suddenly she recalled what Li Shican had told her after lunch.

It meant that earlier, Xu Huaisong had considered marrying her. Or to put it in another way, from the very start, marriage was his final goal.

Then she figured that she knew why he wanted to hide the contingency plan from her.

Marriage is something that should be decided by the two persons involved. There shouldn’t be any external interference or influence. He didn’t want to leave the impression in her mind that their marriage carried some other connotation.

Just because he was very prudent about this matter, though they both implicitly knew they were heading towards that direction, Ruan Yu knew that Xu Huaisong wouldn’t bring up marriage before he completely finished his work in the US.

With that understanding in mind, Ruan Yu decided that it was not something she should worry about now. After all, it wouldn’t be until next year when Xu Huaisong’s career in this country stabilized.

Ruan Yu then asked: “When will you be back from the US this time?”

“I won’t be back before New Year's Day.”

Ruan Yu instantly had a long face: “Then we can’t spend New Year’s Eve together……”

Xu Huaisong laughed as he looked at her: “There’s nothing special about New Year’s Eve. Let’s be more patriotic. It’ll be good as long as we’re together for Lunar New Year.”

Ruan Yu opened her mouth and wanted to say that she wasn’t just being “into foreign cultures”, it was because New Year’s Eve had special meaning to them. But she swallowed what she wanted to say when she saw Xu Huaisong not seem to think too much into it.

Forget it, she thought, she shouldn’t expect a man to understand the romantic meaning of it.

Three days later, it was the winter solstice.

Xu Huaisong had tightly planned everything for the day. First thing in the morning, he drove with Ruan Yu back home in Su City. After the ceremony giving offerings to his ancestors, the whole family had lunch together. Then they had afternoon tea with his family before driving back to Hang City.

When they reached the suburbs, the setting sun painted a faint yellow halo over the road ahead..

Ruan Yu suddenly thought about Zhou Jun. He and his girlfriend had their accident right on this road when they were on their way from Su City to the suburbs of Hang City.

She sighed. Before she said anything, Xu Huaisong had already guessed what she was thinking. He brought up a different topic to distract her: “What are we going to eat tonight?”

“My mom heard that we had a feast at lunch and she’s going to prepare hot pot for us.” She tilted her head to look at him: “Mr. Xu, you’re going to see your homeroom teacher soon, are you nervous? Are you scared?”

Xu Huaisong laughed: “I’m scared.”

Ruan Yu was about to comfort him when she heard him say: “I’ll have to keep cooking food for you as we eat. I’m scared that I won’t have enough to eat.”

“......”

Ruan Yu looked outside the window and bleakly thought about how passions could really deteriorate.

[1]: Chinese people traditionally celebrate winter solstice 冬至 (dōngzhì) with their families. During this time they’ll give offerings to their ancestors and eat special food, dumplings in the north and glutinous rice balls in the south.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 64 Part 3

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 64 Part 3

Ruan Yu had gotten more familiar with the people at the meeting and asked with a laugh: “Do we have a super star somewhere?”

“Haven’t you seen the news on Weibo, Yuyu? It’s our male lead.”

Li Shican?

Ruan Yu was surprised: “Has he gotten some awards?”

“Not an award. You know how there’s been at least eight fugitives that have been caught at Jacky Cheung’s concerts? The police just arrested someone at Li Shican’s concert yesterday in Hu City. They said this one’s a murderer on the run. This is a good omen for us right before our booting ceremony!”

Other people filed into the meeting room while they were chatting and soon the meeting began.

When it was almost noon time, Ruan Yu received a WeChat message.

Li Shican: [Is the meeting over? Uncle Cen’s inviting you to come up to the 19th floor for lunch.]

Since Ruan Yu had run into Sun Miaohan in the elevator earlier, she wasn’t surprised that Li Shican was also here. Ruan Yu looked down at her phone and quietly replied: [It should be done soon. Aren’t you going out to eat?]

Li Shican: [The paparazzi outside is annoying. Uncle Cen’s asking a chef to come and cook a table full of dishes. Come up after the meeting’s over.]

Ruan Yu felt it wasn’t proper to turn down Cen Rongshen’s invitation and went up to the 19th floor after the meeting adjourned. She apologized to the three people who were waiting for her there: “Uncle Cen, sorry for being late. The meeting just finished.”

“It’s quite alright. This is a private lunch, nothing serious. Come, sit down.”

The four of them sat around a large round table full of fine dishes of Jiangnan cuisine, including several Su City desserts which were Ruan Yu’s favorites.

The desserts could have been arranged by Cen Rongshen or Li Shican.

Ruan Yu felt a little reserved at the table. Sun Miaohan on the other hand seemed to have gotten quite familiar with Li Shican after meeting him for the whole morning and was trying hard to enliven the atmosphere during lunch. 

Li Shican was also a lively person and joined Sun Miaohan.

After lunch, tea was served. Cen Rongshen however had to leave because of other work arrangements. The other three stayed on the 19th floor.

Sun Miaohan asked as she ate fruit: “Shican Ge, you really caught a murderer yesterday? That’s awesome.”

Li Shican’s expression seemed to say “how can you believe this”: “It’s my company which seized the opportunity to pull a publicity stunt for me. That guy isn’t my fan at all. He just happened to be arrested near the auditorium where my concert was.”

Sun Miaohan: “Ohhhh, so that’s what happened. You’re quite honest……”

Li Shican didn’t know how to reply.

Ruan Yu had already gotten up to go back to the 7th floor to continue with the meeting. She stopped after hearing what Li Shican had said and asked: “Does this publicity stunt have anything to do with this movie?”

Li Shican shook his head: “It’s my agents.”

Ruan Yu hesitated to say: “Hrm, but, didn’t Mr. Wei intend to play some publicity stunts with you and the movie?”

Li Shican nodded: “He probably planned to, using the plagiarism incident as the starting point,  hype the relationship between me and you and Cen Sisi. But, don’t worry, Uncle Cen won’t do it that way.”

Ruan Yu certainly knew that Cen Rongshen wouldn’t use his own daughter to promote the movie or the relationship of the three behind the movie to earn publicity.

However, she still would like to find out the answer to another question: “When Mr. Wei was still around, what was the contingency plan which you and Lawyer Xu had decided on?”

Because of the arrest of Wei Jin, there was no need for that contingency plan. Xu Huaisong was tight lipped from the beginning. Since Ruan Yu couldn’t get the answer from Xu Huaisong, she could only ask Li Shican.

The moment Li Shican heard the question, the smile disappeared from his face and he became quiet.

Ruan Yu: “Uh, if it’s not convenient to tell me, you don’t have to say it. I’m just a little curious……”

“There’s nothing inconvenient about it.” Li Shican said after a short pause: “At the time, Lawyer Xu was worried that if the film was using this kind of relationship issue as a publicity stunt, it would have a huge impact on your normal daily life. So the contingency plan he proposed was to use the most direct method to break the rumor……”

“The most direct method?”

Li Shican smiled and looked up to say: “Hrm, he said, if I couldn’t eliminate the risk of the hype, he’ll marry you.”

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 64 Part 2

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 64 Part 2

Ruan Yu was already asleep when Xu Huaisong returned home. Ruan Yu had gone to bed early that night since she had an early morning meeting at Global Filming the next day to prepare for her film’s booting ceremony.[1] She woke up in a daze when Xu Huaisong came into the room and found him sitting next to her on the bed and holding her injured hand.

Stunned, Ruan Yu asked: “You’re back?”

Xu Huaisong pulled away some stray hairs on her forehead and said: “En. Sorry to wake you up. Go back to sleep. I’ll go take a shower.” As he was talking, he turned off the lamp on the nightstand which he had just switched on.

Ruan Yu nodded and covered her mouth to yawn. Then she belatedly recalled that the moment she woke up, she seemed to have an itchy sensation on her left ring finger as if the finger was circled by a thin string.

But, as she looked down on her finger now, there wasn’t anything nor any mark on it.

Ruan Yu felt sleepy again and quickly went back to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, Xu Huaisong had already gotten up and was putting his shirt on.

Ruan Yu was fully awake and got up from bed: “I’ll put on the tie for you today.”

Xu Huaisong stopped and laughed: “I’m not the defense counsel.”

Ruan Yu got off the bed and with an expression that screamed “the first day my son joins the Young Pioneers of China, certainly the mother has to help him to tie the red scarf,” she said: “Nevertheless, this is the first day you enter the Chinese courtroom as a lawyer intern.”

Standing on her tippy toes, Ruan Yu intently put on the tie for him.

Xu Huaisong watched and noticed that she was quite skilled at it. He asked: “When did you learn to do this?”

“When you’re working at the office.”

Xu Huaisong slightly lifted the tail of his eyebrow: “Then, who’s the model that you practiced on?”

Ruan Yu had successfully put the tie on him and pointed behind Xu Huaisong: “Who else, that coat rack over there.”

Xu Huaisong laughed: “Alright, go wash up.”

Ruan Yu nodded and turned to go into the bathroom. During breakfast, she asked him while biting into the sandwich: “Today’s meeting will be about deciding several alternative names for the movie. Do you have any good ideas?”

“Isn’t the original one pretty good?”

“It might not be approved in the end. The producer said ‘Whisper in Your Ear’ is a bit obscene……” Ruan Yu annoyingly drank a mouthful of milk: “Why are people these days so impure in their thoughts? The name obviously means – – ‘I Really Want to Tell You a Secret’.”

Xu Huaisong paused in the middle of biting into his sandwich as if he had misunderstood something all along. He nodded to show that he agreed with Ruan Yu: “Yeah, they are really impure.”

After breakfast, Xu Huaisong drove Ruan Yu to Global Filming. She went up to the seventh floor as usual for the meeting. She ran into Sun Miaohan, who she hadn’t seen for a long time, when she stepped into the elevator.

About a month ago, Sun Miaohan had been cast as the female lead of the movie. Besides Ruan Yu’s recommendation, it was mainly her own disposition that fit perfectly with the character in the novel.

The two had exchanged calls but hadn’t had any opportunity to meet in person. Sun Miaohan was quite surprised to see Ruan Yu: “Jiejie, you and me are meant to meet in elevators every time!”

Sun Miaohan subconsciously blurted out. Her facial expression changed after saying so and paused for a moment.

Obviously, she hadn’t fully recovered from the trauma which Wei Jin had created for her.

Ruan Yu patted Sun Miaohan’s back: “It’s all over. This time I’ll be there at the set the whole time and I promise that kind of thing won’t happen again.”

Sun Miaohan nodded: “Jiejie, you truly are my guardian angel.”

Ruan Yu smiled: “Why are you here today?”

“Mr. Cen asked me to come. He said he’d buy me and Shican Ge lunch so we can be familiar with each other as soon as possible. It’ll be helpful after we start shooting the movie.”

The elevator stopped at the seventh floor as she finished.

Ruan Yu waved goodbye to her and walked out of the elevator.

To accommodate Xu Huaisong to get to the court on time, Ruan Yu had arrived especially early today. There were only a few people inside the meeting room and were busily chatting. As she was walking into the room, she happened to hear a female voice excitedly say: “Then Jacky Cheung[2] has a qualified successor now!” 

[1]: The Chinese is 开机仪式 (kāijī yíshì). 开机 meaning “boot up” or “start up” and 仪式 meaning “ceremony.” It’s a common ceremony done by film crews when they begin filming to ward off bad fortune and wish that the film will be popular.

[2]: 张学友 (zhāngxuéyǒu) or Jacky Cheung is a famous Hong Kong singer.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 64 Part 1

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 64 Part 1

Xu Huaisong didn’t take the liberty to open the other two letters, instead, he handed over the two letters to Tao Rong and Xu Hauishi respectively.

Two weeks later, the result of the lawyer exams came out. Xu Huaisong had passed and Xu Yin’s condition had also stabilized enough for him to check out of the hospital.

Ruan Yu was thinking of having Xu Yin stay in her apartment, but Xu Huaisong didn’t think it was a good idea since Ruan Yu’s hand hadn’t fully recovered and she didn’t really have extra space in her apartment. When Tao Rong proposed on her own to take care of Xu Yin, Xu Huaisong agreed and took him back to their home in Su City.

The day Xu Yin was scheduled to go back home happened to be the sentencing day of Wei Jin’s case. Xu’s family tried their best to cut off any chance for Xu Yin to see or hear about the news. They unplugged the TV at home and threw away the newspapers they subscribed to.

At noon time, Xu Huaishi stayed next to her father and was telling fairy tales to him which he didn’t seem to fully understand. Tao Rong was busy in the kitchen. Xu Huaisong offered to help but was rejected a few times before he gave up on the idea and went to the balcony.

Because of her hand injury, Ruan Yu couldn’t help much and was resting with Xu’s grandma bathing in the sun on the balcony.

When Xu Huaisong went over, he heard his grandma saying in a small voice while covering her mouth: “Huaisong hasn’t gone over to visit your parents yet?” It looked like she was worried that her own grandson might offend Ruan Yu’s family.

Ruan Yu was about to explain when Xu Huaisong spoke ahead of her with a smile: “Grandma, don’t start falsely accusing me. I want to go but she won’t let me.”

Grandma Xu turned to look at Ruan Yu.

Ruan Yu lifted her hand which still had scabs on it: “Hehe, grandma, I was thinking of going over after my hand is better. Otherwise, my parents would be worried.”

Grandma understood and happily said: “It’s good as long as you two are planning it. Huaisong, will you be going to the US in the future?”

“There’s one more court day at the end of this month. After that, I won’t be going there unless there’s a special situation.”

Grandma happily used her right fist to lightly hit her left palm, as if to say “then it’s done.”

Ruan Yu was confused and didn’t quite get grandma’s reaction.

Xu Hauisong smiled and told Ruan Yu: “Come wash your hand. It’s time to eat.”

Ruan Yu nodded and followed him to the bathroom.

Xu Huaisong had taken over all the household chores lately. Even with hand washing, he would use damp cotton swabs to carefully wipe around her wounds.

Ruan Yu looked down at his wiping motion and said: “It’s alright now, they’ve all scabbed over.”

Xu Huaisong didn’t seem to hear her and continued with the motion. After cleaning her hand, he closed the bathroom door and turned on his cell phone.

Ruan Yu mouthed to him: verdict is out?

Xu Huaisong nodded and logged on to read an electronic version of the verdict.

Ruan Yu leaned over to look and found out the verdict was death sentence with reprieve.

Ruan Yu frowned in confusion. Xu Huaisong whispered to explain: “Usually when a case gets such a quick trial verdict at first instance, it's the outcome due to pressure from public outcry. Since he faces drug charges which are still under investigation, this verdict of death with a reprieve is to give the police a chance to take down the drug organization behind him.”

Ruan Yu nodded and didn’t ask any more questions since the result seemed to have been expected by Xu Huaisong. She asked instead in a low voice: “How about Zhou Jun’s case, how’s it progressing?”

“The court day is about two weeks away.”

“How sure is Zhang Jie?”

Xu Huaisong smiled and stroked her head: “Let’s not talk about sureness, as long as we try our best.”

Xu Huaisong and Ruan Yu stayed at Su City for one night. They went back to Hang City after making sure that Xu Yin was emotionally stable.

For the next two weeks, Xu Huaisong was preparing for his last court appearance in the US while also keeping tabs on the progress of Zhou Jun’s case. The night before the court day, he stayed in the office with Zhang Jie to double check everything and didn’t come home until after ten.

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

You're My Belated Happiness - Chapter 63 Part 3

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

You’re My Belated Happiness

Chapter 63 Part 3

When Ruan Yu and Xu Huaisong went back to the ward, the mess on the ground had been cleaned up.

Xu’s father was asleep and Tao Rong sat next to the bed looking at him. She looked up as the two entered the room and saw Ruan Yu’s bandage on her hand. There was an apologetic expression on her face. She told Xu Huaisong in a small voice: “Yuyu doesn’t seem to feel good. Take her home to get some rest. I’ll watch over your father here.”

Xu Huaisong was quiet.

Tao Rong awkwardly smiled: “Don’t you worry. I’ll ask the doctor and the caregiver how to take care of your father.”

Xu Huaisong nodded and took Ruan Yu back to her apartment. He opened the mailbox in the lobby and took out three letters.

They were letters from the US that had just been delivered today.

Ruan Yu glanced over the letters and noticed that, though all three letters were addressed to Xu Huaisong, each of the three letters had a different name marked on the corner of the envelopes.

Except the one marked for Xu Huaisong, the other two were marked for Xu Huaishi and Tao Rong respectively.

After they returned to the apartment, Xu Huaisong brought Ruan Yu to the bedroom and asked her to lie down to get some rest. Then, he went back out to sit down in the living room and opened the letter marked for him from his father.

He recognized the handwriting to be his father’s, yet the writing seemed a bit scribbly as if he didn’t have a firm handle of the pen. It looked like his father wasn’t in a good physical condition when he wrote the letter.

The first line of the letter was: “Son, when you’re reading this letter, dad probably isn’t living in this world already.”

Though Xu Huaisong was prepared to see words like this, he was still taken aback by the first line and had to pause for a while before continuing reading the letter.

“You might find it quite sudden for me to depart from this world as I haven’t mentioned it to you that I’ve been diagnosed with a serious cardiovascular disease early on when I first arrived in the US.”

“In fact, in the past three years I have been admitted to the emergency rooms twice. Even at this moment when I’m writing this letter, I was just rescued from the jaws of death not too long ago. I’m fully prepared for my departure and you don’t have to feel sorry for me either. Also, you don’t have to blame yourself for not knowing my condition beforehand. I’m keeping you in the dark on purpose.”

“How would you know if I don’t tell you? Just like three years ago your mother wouldn’t have known that I was lying when I told her that I was tired of her and tired of our home.”

“I’m too stubborn to speak my true feelings. When you were eighteen years old, you demanded to know whether I was sure that my client didn’t kill anybody. I didn’t say anything at the time. I didn’t say anything because I know that even if I did, you might not fully understand. I figure that, choosing to be a lawyer yourself, you’ll find the answer to your question sooner or later.”

“To be honest, I don’t really wish for you to become a lawyer or at the very least, not to be a criminal law lawyer. As a criminal law lawyer, I do look forward to seeing more and more young people walk on the path to become criminal lawyers with passion, conviction, and diligence. Yet, as a father, I do not wish for my own son to be like me, suffering and being accused and outcast.”

“Therefore, when you were deciding which law to specialize in, I’ve done something I shouldn’t have. I’ve talked with your adviser in private and asked him to persuade you and interfere with your decision. I hope you won't blame me for it.”

“If you really resent the choice you made then, redo your choice according to your own preference. It’s your life after all. I only want to tell you that no matter what kind of lawyer you end up as and how many accomplishments you’ve made, you’ll always be my biggest pride. Though it’s a pity that I won’t be able to see it myself.”

The letter stopped abruptly. It didn’t really read like a letter of last words but did disclose a lot of information to Xu Huaisong.

Xu Huaisong’s vision became blurry. He took off his glasses which were moist from his tears. Suddenly he heard light footsteps behind him.

Ruan Yu had come out of the bedroom and seemed to have watched him from behind for quite some time.

Xu Huaisong looked back and cleared his throat with an uneasy expression on his face.

Ruan Yu walked over and embraced him. She didn’t ask him what was written in the letter, instead she said: “Tomorrow will be better, much, much better.”

Indeed, what he thought he had lost turned out to be right next to him. This wasn’t really a letter of last words; it wasn’t the final ending. Then, tomorrow certainly would be much, much better.

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