Chapter 37
Ling Yichen was indeed in a hurry to find Xia Mao.
Because when he was talking to Lu Wanqiu, he suddenly remembered the way Xia Mao was sitting in a pool of blood, begging him to save the child.
He wanted to go back to the woman's side quickly, to hold her in his arms, to feel what it was like to hold her in his arms.
It was a good thing she had lost her memory, otherwise she would probably still hate herself, right?
When he arrived at the flat, only Tian's mother was there and Xia Mao had gone out.
He was busy giving her a call.
"Hello?" The voice on the phone was crisp and cheerful.
"Where are you?" The corners of Ling Yichen's mouth couldn't help but pick up.
"I'm at the supermarket," Xia Mao said, "The fridge is empty, I've come to buy something."
"In which supermarket?" Ling Yichen asked as he went downstairs.
"It's at the Wole supermarket east of the district entrance, it's huge and sells everything, do you have anything you want to eat?"
"I'll come to you." Ling Yichen added as he was hanging up the phone, "Only use my money."
"I know." The woman giggled, "I'll wait for you."
Ling Yichen quickly got into the car and asked the driver to drive it to the supermarket.
When the car stopped at the entrance, he hesitated before getting out of the car, as he had never been to this place before.
Once inside the supermarket, he called Xia Mao again, "Where are you?"
"I'm here in the water sales." Xia Mao was holding an orange in one hand and the phone in the other, looking around, when she suddenly saw the man walking out from behind the shelves, she said happily over the phone, "I'm here!"
Ling Yichen immediately saw the woman in a shirt and denim shorts holding the phone in one hand and waving the orange in her hand at him.
He smiled and walked over towards her, "Finished shopping?"
"I'm all done shopping, but I don't know if there's anything you want to buy?" Summer ended up looking at him with a smirk, "Can you push your coat off? Make it sound like you're the manager of the mall."
Ling Yichen's eyes followed her gaze and looked to the side, but no one was dressed as formally as he was, except for a few of the mall managers.
He smiled and took off his coat, folding the sleeves of his light blue shirt upwards twice before reaching out to help the woman beside him push the shopping cart, his eyes lingering on her long, thin legs for a good thirty seconds.
The woman had bought a pair of toothbrushes, a pair of mugs, and a pair of women's slippers without noticing.
"Why did you only buy one pair?" Ling Yichen reached over and put the pair of men's slippers that matched the women's pair next to him into the cart as well.
"I looked at home and there's a pair of men's slippers for that." Xia Mao raised an eyebrow at him.
"They come as a pair." The man said as a matter of course, and Xia Mao pursed her lips in pleasure.
Ling Yichen accompanied her for another round of shopping before heading to the exit to settle the bill.
When it was time for them to pay, Ling Yichen only stared at Xia Mao with his eyes.
Xia Mao, who had expected him to pay, had to take out the card he had given her from her bag and hand it to the cashier.
The corners of Ling Yichen's mouth then showed a pleasant curve, his woman had to spend his money.
Back at the flat, Ling Yichen watched as the woman acted like a wife, putting all the new things she had bought back, in the appropriate places, then washed the fruit, put it on the coffee table and sat down on the sofa, "I'm exhausted!"
Ling Yichen's heart was at peace as he moved to her side and swept her up in his arms, "You can't die, I'll take you out for some delicious food later, to make up for it?"
"I want to eat a full Han Dynasty banquet." Xia Mo rested her head on his shoulder.
"Sure, I'll call and ask where to get it and have them start making it now." Ling Yichen seriously took out the phone and was about to dial out.
"You're really asking?" Xia Mo was busy stopping him, beaming and pouting, "You're so meaningless, you take everything you say seriously."
"I don't necessarily take everything others say to heart." Ling Yichen looked at the smile in her big eyes and slowly lowered his head and kissed her pink lips.
In the evening, Ling Yichen took a well-dressed Xia Mao to a private club for dinner.
The food there was not only colourful and fragrant, but also beautiful and quiet.
Ling Yichen took Xia Mao to sit by the street window on the first floor, ordered four of the shop's specialties, and gave Xia Mao a freshly squeezed pot of corn juice.
Xia Mao had rarely left the house in the year she stayed with Bo Wen, and now everywhere she went, she had the feeling that Liu Lou Lou had entered the Grand View Garden, which made Ling Yichen feel both heartbroken and pitying.
"I'll have someone get a membership card later, so if you want to come later, have the driver send you over, or you and Tian's mother can walk, it's just a short walk through a park from the flat to here."
"I just want to come with you."
Xia Mao's big watery eyes looked at Ling Yichen, and where else could Ling Yichen not say yes?
"Sure, as long as you want to come, I'll come with you."
The two sat in a corner, whispering, with only each other in their eyes, neither noticing the woman who walked in at the door.
Lu Wanqiu stood downstairs and saw the two sitting in front of the window, especially the gentle expression on Ling Yichen's face, which deeply stung her eyes.
She stood silently on the other side of the clubhouse doorway, avoiding the window.
Not long after, Lu Wanru, who had been invited, stepped down from the car in an elegant manner.
"Sister." Lu Wanqiu did not go down the steps, but greeted Lu Wanru from the steps.
This was not Lu Wanqiu's style, she had always been gentle and polite outside.
Although Lu Wanru was strange, she was not in the habit of standing at the bottom and looking up at Lu Wanqiu, so she lifted her feet and walked up the steps and stood next to Lu Wanqiu.
"Why are you so free today? I can't believe you're inviting me to dinner, you wouldn't have something to ask for, would you?" Lu Wanru guessed that Lu Wanqiu knew about Xia Mao and thought it was her idea and wanted to negotiate with her on terms.
"Our sisters are both busy giving birth, it's been a long time since we've seen each other, I heard Yichen say that the food here is good, so I combined to ask sister to come along and try it." Lu Wanqiu smiled and made a gesture of "please" to Yuan Wanru.
Lu Wanru knew that Lu Wanqiu had always put on a show in front of herself that she and Ling Yichen were in love.
"I didn't expect Yichen to be so nostalgic." Lu Wanru took a step ahead and walked into the clubhouse, but her light-hearted words almost made Lu Wanqiu's nose crooked behind her.
The woman's eyes were like sharp knives that could have stabbed her more than ten times before she followed her up the stairs with a normal expression.
The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you're doing.
If she tells her later that she agrees to Ling Yichen and Xia Mao being together and that Xia Mao can have another child with the surname Ling, will she be furious?
She was really looking forward to it!
But when she got to the first floor, she had just followed the waiter no more than five metres away when Lu Wanru realised she had been tricked this time!
Chapter 38
"Why isn't sister leaving?" Lu Wanqiu's voice sounded behind her, and with a step she stepped to Lu Wanru's side, smiling and turning her head to look, she called out in surprise, "Yichen? ...... Sister Xia?"
Xia Mao froze and stood up from her chair, somewhat unsure of what to do and looked towards Ling Yichen who had already changed his face slightly.
Who are these two women who look so clean and elegant?
Ling Yichen's clear cold gaze did not carry a trace of temperature as he coldly swept towards them, "What a coincidence."
Lu Wanru looked at Lu Wanqiu's gloating eyes and was furious in her heart.
But she knew that Xia Mao had lost her memory, and Ling Yichen's heart cared for her, so she could only explain cryptically, "It's quite a coincidence, Lu Wanqiu told me that she had chosen the place all morning before she found it."
"When did Sister Xia come back?" Lu Wanqiu but deliberately looked at Xia Mao and asked.
"I ......" Xia Mao didn't know how to respond for a moment, so she looked at Ling Yichen.
"Since you guys had a hard time picking such a place, then you can eat here!" Ling Yichen stood up and reached out to take Xia Mao's hand, "Let's change places."
Lu Wanqiu looked at Ling Yichen's hand and hated to go up and cut it twice with a knife.
She looked towards the stairway with some anxiety, and when the sound of hurried footsteps came from the stairs, her heart gave way with some peace, watching as Ling Yichen pulled an embarrassed Xia Mao to the front of them.
At that moment, two people came up from the stairs downstairs, and the one in the front was a fat man who, seeing them, immediately exclaimed loudly, "Oh, Mr. Ling and Mrs. Ling are also here for dinner?"
Xia Mao's eyes went wide at once, who was Mr. and Mrs. Ling referring to?
She didn't notice that Ling Yichen had already let go of her hand.
What surprised her even more were the words of the other tall, thin man who was following the fat man, "Eldest brother-in-law, Eldest sister ...... Second sister? Why are you eating together?"
Xia Mao's eyes immediately looked at the man and woman beside her.
Why was she a little confused? What were these people talking about?
"Aiya, this is the Lu family's second sister? That famous painter?" The fat man politely extended his hand to Lu Wanqiu, "What a pleasure to meet you! My wife really likes your paintings."
"It's an honour." Lu Wanqiu politely shook hands with the fat man.
Ling Yichen looked coldly at a few people before turning his head to look at the woman behind him, whose face was as white as paper, and said in a low voice, "Let's go first!"
He extended his hand to Xia Mao openly, but Xia Mao did not take his hand openly.
Suspicion flared in her heart.
This time, everyone took the initiative to move out of the way.
Ling Yichen sulked in front, Xia Mao bowed her head in the back, and the two of them went downstairs together.
"I guess you have said all your words with actions today, so you should have nothing more to talk to me about, right?" Lu Wanru looked at Lu Wanqiu and smiled, "It's just that this is not a very clever move, not like something your mother could have taught you!"
Lu Wanqiu just smiled coldly and held her arms, not retorting or fighting back.
"But I hope you won't involve Ziqian in this next time!" Lu Wanru's expression snapped cold, "Lu Wanqiu, you should know that I'm not afraid of you, so don't force my hand!"
"Of course I know that sister isn't afraid of me, I also know that sister doesn't have me in mind at all, otherwise why would she find a young and beautiful girl to snatch someone?" Lu Wanqiu looked at Lu Wanru with a dimpled smile, "This drama I'm putting on today is only because I don't want other girls to be fooled, and it's also with good intentions."
"Go away!" Lu Wanru was too lazy to argue with her anymore and dragged her cousin Lu Ziqian downstairs.
Only that fat Wang and Lu Wanqiu were left upstairs.
"Second sister, Ling Yichen won't retaliate against me afterwards, will he?" Mr. Wang rubbed his hands together and said with some worry.
"One Lu family is already enough to feed you, you still want to climb on the Ling family?" Lu Wanqiu sneered, "One can't be too greedy, it's easy to chew too much greed."
Lu Wanqiu twisted her waist and went downstairs in a happy mood, leaving Mr. Wang depressed and cursing in his heart: slut!
The two of them went back to their flat in silence, and Ling Yichen had the foresight to send Tian's mother back home.
He then sat on the sofa in the living room in silence again.
The two of them were silent all the way back to the apartment.
In fact, Xia Mao had been waiting for Ling Yichen to speak first, she hoped he could tell himself: they are lying to you, what they said is not the truth.
"What do you have to ask?" Ling Yichen finally spoke first.
"What is my relationship with you?"
It seemed like a simple question, but it made it a little difficult for Ling Yichen to speak.
"Is this a difficult question to answer?" Xia Mao's heart went wow all of a sudden, "Why don't you tell me, which one is Mr. Ling's wife?"
"I am indeed married," Ling Yichen watched Xia Mao's face turn whiter and whiter, but had to cruelly continue, "The woman I saw yesterday is the wife I married, Lu Wanru."
Xia Mao's eyelashes blinked and her eyes turned red, "You're shameless!"
"I like you!" Ling Yichen reached out to take Xia Mao's hand, but Xia Mao backed up violently as if he had a virus.
"Can you leave first?" Xia Mao's eyes were filled with tears as she looked at him and said in a dumb voice, "I want to be by myself for a while."
"Xia Mao, Lu Wanru and I are only explicitly married, and for some special reasons I can't divorce her, but I truly love you, and I can give you anything except I can't give you that marriage certificate and wedding." Ling Yichen coaxed in a deep voice, "I will never let you sneak around, I will let you be with me openly and honestly."
"Openly and honestly as your third child?" Xia Mao almost didn't let him laugh, "Why don't you cross over? With your stature, when you go back to ancient times, you can have three wives and four concubines and marry several of them."
"You know that I am true to you." Ling Yichen's face sank for a moment, and then said in a slow voice, "I'm not hiding anything from Lu Wanru, she doesn't ask for anything other than the status of a wife."
What was the difference between this and the first wife of the main house in ancient times, a concubine only had to not threaten the position of the main house and let you bounce around outside as you please.
"I know." Xia Mo lowered her head and looked at her fingers, "Can I stay by myself for a while?"
Ling Yichen looked deeply at her, but she had her head down and he couldn't see her face.
His heart seized up, but he didn't want to mention the past to her, so he could only stand up from the sofa helplessly, "Xia Mao, you are the first woman I have truly liked from the bottom of my heart."
Xia Mao watched him walk out of the room and the moment the door closed, tears fell like rain.
She didn't expect her wonderful love to last only three short days.