Side Stories (Part 1)
Translated by trungtnguyen123
Chen Yin Jiang was the head of the Chen household and Chen Yu Bai was Chen Yin Jiang’s only son. Growing up as the next head of the Chen household, Chen Yu Bai had to go through a lot of struggles and he developed a cold temperament and rarely spoke.
Before Chen Yu Bai trusted and fell in love with Xiao Li, his aunt Chen Yin Ren was the only person he cared about and could relate to in the Chen household. That was why for a long period in Chen Yu Bai’s life, he resented his country bumpkin and dummy ‘cousin’ Xiao Li.
After Chen Yin Ren cut ties with the Chen household and before Chen Yu Bai studied overseas, Chen Yu Bai travelled to Xiao Li’s hometown. At that time Chen Yu Bai was still Chen’s company’s heir, if he stepped outside there was always a driver and a group of guards who followed him. Chen Yu Bai sat inside a luxury car and waited for Xiao Li to come out of her school.
When Chen Yu Bai visited Xiao Li’s hometown that autumn, the students and teachers were on a semester break and the school was deserted. Chen Yu Bai’s car was parked outside the school’s field.
Chen Yu Bai remembered that autumn afternoon the sun shone golden light on the school, it was a beautiful sight. On the vast school field was a little girl, her hair was braided and she was learning to ride a bike. One glance, and he recognised it was Miss dummy that Chen Yin Ren brought to his family home before Chen Yin Ren left his family home.
Xiao Li at that age was a chubby country bumpkin, she rode a male’s bike that reached her chest. She wore warm shoes that were about as big as her face. Her riding posture wasn’t good and she kept fumbling to sit upright on the bike, she struggled to push the bike pedals and her right shoe flew off. Her bike swayed, she panicked and turned the bike around to look for her missing right shoe. Her hand slipped and she cried out before the bike and her body collided with the ground.
Chen Yu Bai called Miss Chen and Miss Chen rushed to the school field. The moment Miss Chen saw that Xiao Li ruined the town’s only darling and beautiful bike, Miss Chen was furious.
The moment Xiao Li spotted Miss Chen, Xiao Li quickly rubbed her bottom and frantically crawled up from the ground. Xiao Li’s clothes were covered in dirt, a shoe still missing on her right foot but she fled from the ruined bike and occasionally looked back to see if Miss Chen was chasing her or not. Chen Yu Bai saw Xiao Li’s lips moving nonstop and he thought she must have asked the heavens to save her from Miss Chen’s temper. Xiao Li’s face was flushed red, it made her look more like a dummy.
Chen Yu Bai couldn’t stop his lips from smiling so he covered his lips with his hand. He sat in his car and laughed loudly. At that time, from the moment he knew how to memorise things, there was never a moment he felt happy as he did in the car that day.
A few years later, Chen Yu Bai followed Liang Fei Fang back to Chen Yu Bai’s childhood district to develop Liang’s company. But Chen Yu Bai didn’t have future plans on his mind, what he thought about was Xiao Li.
When Chen Yu Bai returned from overseas it was still unclear why he thought about Xiao Li, later he realised he had formed an attachment toward Xiao Li years ago and he had missed her whilst he was overseas.
The moment Chen Yu Bai landed and got off the plane, a background file about Xiao Li’s life was quickly brought to him. He stroked the photo of Xiao Li smiling brightly, and he felt a ‘finally’ sensation pressed into his heart. His heart declared to Xiao Li’s heart – ‘Xiao Li, we have many long days and months ahead of us!’
***
After Chen Yu Bai got to eat Xiao Li’s meat, he didn’t have any special feelings in his heart. He considered himself as a bad person so moral righteousness never tied him down, he’d always been morally loose.
Accidentally or intentionally, but everything that happened to that point Chen Yu Bai ate Xiao Li’s meat, he felt that everything laid within the palm of his hand. Then that hot morning on the way to a morning meeting, his assistant of six years reported his business schedule for the day before his assistant mentioned about Xiao Li’s graduation celebration. ‘The bouquet of flowers that aren’t in season were flew over this morning and her gift is wrapped. Do you want to have a candlelight dinner with her at Golden Age tonight?’
Chen Yu Bai suddenly pressed on the brakes and startled his assistant. ‘Deliver the flowers and gift to Linda. Cancel the dinner tonight!’
‘What?’ Chen Yu Bai’s assistant asked.
Chen Yu Bai’s assistant was shocked, because he thought the flowers and gift was meant to be a surprise for his boss’ secretary for her graduation ceremony. He thought that his boss had fallen for Miss An so he didn’t understand why his boss wanted to be with Linda to vent his anger that quickly.
‘Tell Linda to come to my place tonight and wait for me,’ Chen Yu Bai said and strode into the meeting room.
Chen Yu Bai felt that he was the only one entitled to control his life. Xiao Li was a woman that he absolutely couldn’t marry, how could he let her affect his mind?
Chen Yu Bai’s logic sunk deeper and he understood what he needed to do, he decided to – retreat.
After work Chen Yu Bai drove home and the moment he stepped into his house, Linda rushed toward him. Linda’s hair was wet and the fragrance after a shower enhanced her sexy body. She wore a white bathrobe and on her face was a sweet and fresh smile.
‘It’s been too long… too long before you remembered me!’ Linda said. She attached her body to Chen Yu Bai’s body like a koala. ‘But the flowers are beautiful and the teddy bear is adorable!’
Linda took the initiative and put her red lips out, but Chen Yu Bai coldly turned away and avoided her lips. She pouted her lips and sulked. ‘You’re hateful!’
Chen Yu Bai’s expression grew colder as time passed.
Since Chen Yu Bai decided not to attend Xiao Li’s graduation ceremony, his heart felt confused. He thought about Miss dummy seeing his fifth brother with Qin Sang, and wondered if Miss dummy would frown and turn away. He also wondered when Miss dummy was taking photos if she looked at her surroundings and searched for him, hoping he would show up in time?
‘What are you thinking about?’ Linda asked.
Linda realised that Chen Yu Bai had changed. The ice glacier’s eyes appeared to have lost a corner of coldness.
Chen Yu Bai’s phone alerted him that he received a text. He composed himself and took out his phone to look at the text, the wicked witch Qin Sang sent him a text photo of Miss dummy surrounded by drunk boys who had their arms around her shoulders, she was smiling too brightly for his liking and he felt frustrated the more he looked. The wicked witch Qin Sang also added a caption – ‘Gathering with young classmates.’
Chen Yu Bai slammed his phone shut and spoke in a tensed voice. ‘I’m taking a shower first.’
In the bathroom connected to Chen Yu Bai’s bedroom, he turned on the hot water. He saw the hot water sprayed down his stiff body muscles then he turned off the water and rushed outside, but Linda was still inside the guest bathroom. He went back to his bedroom, laid on the bed and he looked at the dark night sky outside the window, he felt confused.
When Xiao Li called Chen Yu Bai’s phone, within a split second he heard something crack in his heart, but later he felt comfortable and lighter.
‘Little Bai?’ An Xiao Li called.
Those two softly spoken words evaporated all of Chen Yu Bai’s internal struggles.
‘Wait for me,’ Chen Yu Bai said and hung up his phone.
Chen Yu Bai smiled and he quickly chose an outfit to wear from his cupboard. Then he went to knock on the guest bathroom and coldly told Linda he was leaving.
On the way to Xiao Li’s house, Chen Yu Bai called his assistant and he was mercilessly teased. ‘If Linda asks me what you’re not satisfied about her, what should I say?’
‘In this situation, do you need me to teach you what to say?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.
‘Then I’ll say that the young master Chen had finally accepted that he had found true love. So with the exception of his true love, he wants to end all inappropriate relations between a man and a woman,’ Chen Yu Bai’s assistant joked daringly once in a blue moon.
Chen Yu Bai didn’t argue with his assistant and hung up his phone.
Not everyone wanted to endure something with a heavy price like love and Chen Yu Bai felt he was someone who especially didn’t want to fall in love.
***
The longer Chen Yu Bai was together with Xiao Li, the more he felt that if he was Liang Fei Fang and Xiao Li was Gu Yan, perhaps he’d give up everything in the world in exchange for Xiao Li’s smile.
Amongst Chen Yu Bai’s sworn brothers, he was the first one to know that Gu Yan was Liang Fei Fang’s big disaster. Chen Yu Bai was also the first to recognise the strangeness between Rong Yan and his fourth brother. Li Wei Ran once asked Chen Yu Bai why he knew so soon, he replied the change in their tolerance threshold.
Chen Yu Bai felt that if a man willingly tolerated a girl outside their tolerance threshold, he was certain it was related to love.
So on a beautiful early morning when Miss dummy wrongly assumed that Chen Yu Bai was asleep, she softly fumbled for her phone but he didn’t open his eyes to stop her.
Xiao Li gently leaned close to Chen Yu Bai’s head and a soft flash sound was heard, it made him laugh on the inside. He heard her mumble something sweet and he smiled then he heard another flash and she laughed, because she thought she successfully took secret photos of them together.
Later Chen Yu Bai accidently saw the photo Xiao Li took of them together in bed set as his caller ID on her phone. At that time she was watching TV, he quietly held her phone behind the sofa and he clearly heard something crashed into his heart.
***
When Chen Yu Bai was sixteen he made his first million yuan. Later Chen Yu Bai with Liang Fei Fang, they battled for Liang’s company to have a bigger piece on the financial market but Chen Yu Bai never got a headache from facing fierce competition.
But when Chen Yu Bai was faced with the black and white piano keys, he sighed at least a dozen times a day.
Qin Sang told Chen Yu Bai in Xiao Li’s hometown to give Xiao Li anything she wanted and at the bar Qin Sang was right about him being a love fool for Xiao Li.
So for Xiao Li, Chen Yu Bai rubbed his forehead and he called the piano teacher who had the trembling voice again. ‘Can you teach how to play the same piano song again?’
By the time it was the banquet night Chen Yu Bai planned to perform a surprise piano song for Xiao Li, he still didn’t master the piano song. He was frustrated and resorted to relying on his extraordinary memory to recall the piano key for each music note and forced his right hand to press the right piano key at the right time.
Chen Yu Bai admitted that Qin Sang understood Miss dummy the most, because the night he performed the piano song for Xiao Li was the night that he saw Xiao Li deeply moved the most since they were together.
The following morning after Chen Yu Bai’s piano performance, Xiao Li promised she’d send-off Qin Sang at the airport. Xiao Li’s apple alarm clock rang but Xiao Li rolled over onto his arm. He was sleepy too and pulled Xiao Li onto his chest, he stroked her smooth back and in his dream state he said to Xiao Li that it wouldn’t matter if they didn’t go to the airport because Qin Sang was going to return soon. Xiao Li heard what he said sounded reasonable so she weakly agreed, hugged his waist and went back to sleep. He hugged her tighter and went back to sleep too, but he clearly felt it was a tranquil and beautiful morning.
Chen Yu Bai asked himself if love had a thousand different types of love. In the past he felt love was too burdensome and wasn’t something he wanted to carry on his shoulders. He was also sceptical if love actually exist. But during the tranquil and beautiful morning he hugged Miss dummy and slept, he didn’t care how the sky and ground outside changed. He only felt that after someone met the right person then it wasn’t burdensome to willingly be a happily married person.
***
End of Side Stories (Part 1)
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