The Room
Chapter 8/15
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The three ladies standing by the door each revealed different expression on their faces. Wang Ma looked astonished. Evidently, she found it surprising that the usually well-behaved Yang Chen had another woman outside.
Zhenxiu was still a nineteen-year-old girl after all. Key words like marriage, betrayal, and lover were still new things to her. What she was currently witnessing was exactly the same as what she had seen in her TV serieses. She subconsciously covered her mouth to prevent herself from crying out.
Guo Xuehua’s expression cycled through a million emotions. At last, she raised her head to give Rose a complicated gaze, before looking at Yang Chen who appeared to be calm. Smiling, she said, “Really? I’m not too surprised at this actually. It was just shocking to hear.”
Rose who was in Yang Chen’s arm shivered lightly. She had never expected the senior she was happily chatting with earlier to suddenly become someone whom she now could not bear to look at.
Her mind was currently filled with various thoughts. She had wondered if she would one day meet Yang Chen’s family or not, but she never thought it would be under such an awkward circumstances, being totally unprepared for it.
However, Rose felt warm inside. She wasn’t disappointed at all, since Yang Chen had accepted her in front of his family.
What was better and more worthy of getting overjoyed for, than being unconditionally accepted by one’s lover?
Regarding whether or not Guo Xuehua and the others were willing to accept her, or how they would see her were secondary to her at that point.
Yang Chen smiled casually. “I was shocked as well. But I hate to lying to people, more so to my own family. Rose and I have had feelings for each other before I even met Ruoxi. I don’t want to be a deserter, so all I can do is put on a brave face and face the problem.”
“Young Master… you… when you’re doing this, how do you think Miss feels? Sigh…” Wang Ma was the first one to think on Lin Ruoxi’s behalf. Even if she found out that Rose was Lin Ruoxi’s love rival, she still didn’t develop hatred for Rose. Being soft-hearted, Wang Ma was just worried about the peace inside her family.
Yang Chen didn’t give an answer immediately, but patted Rose on her firm and springy backside. Gently, he said, “Babe Rose, you return first. I have some unfinished business to handle before I come look for you.”
“Hu—” Rose wanted to call him, but noticed it was inappropriate. Blushing, she said, “Yang Chen, don’t get into an argument because of me.”
“Do I need you to teach me that?” Yang Chen said before smacking her butt once again.
Rose hurriedly escaped. She was annoyed and shy when she was spanked in front of Guo Xuehua and the others, and at the same time felt a strange excitement.
This was similar to a relationship being found out in middle school, while the couple still behaved intimately in front of their parents. The kind of psychological stimulation was enough to excite a person.
Turning around, Rose had her eyes shut as she bowed to Guo Xuehua to imply a goodbye, before quickly running back to her house.
Rose came to the steel railing as she planned to leap over it. This was how she came over this morning to rescue Guo Xuehua. However, she thought she’d appear masculine by doing so. She had to care about how Guo Xuehua and the others thought of her due recent events. Blushing, Rose turned around yet another time to leave the house from the main entrance.
Guo Xuehua had witnessed this scene. She let out a bitter, helpless yet regretful smile before saying, “Such a foolish kid.”
“Why else would she fall for a terrible man like me otherwise?”
“Does Ruoxi know about this?” Guo Xuehua asked.
Yang Chen nodded. “I bumped into her when I brought Rose to shopping, but we haven’t spoken of it since then.”
This time, Wang Ma and Zhenxiu seemed particularly shocked. Lin Ruoxi was aware that Yang Chen had someone else outside? Why didn’t she behave any unusually?!
“What do you plan to do?” Guo Xuehua asked. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say. Being a woman, she was naturally against Yang Chen’s unfaithfulness. But being a mother, she hoped that her son could live a truly joyous life.
From the interaction between Yang Chen and Rose earlier, Guo Xuehua could easily tell that they were truly in love. Both of them would only get hurt when forced to separate.
Of course, Guo Xuehua didn’t think Yang Chen would listen to her. She had held a strong guilt for Yang Chen. All she could do was showing her concern.
Yang Chen scratched the back of his head. “I don’t have the perfect solution to this matter. But I just discussed about this with Ruoxi recently. So I think there shouldn’t be a problem for now.”
As he spoke, Yang Chen walked toward Wang Ma. Apologetically, he said, “Wang Ma, you must be really disappointed in me, since I’ve betrayed your trust.”
Wang Ma smiled bitterly. “Young Master, this is the matter does not concern the old like me. I… I’ve watched Miss grow up, so I’m naturally on her side. I just hope that Young Master won’t let Miss get too upset.”
“I understand. There’s nothing that will make me forget that Ruoxi is my wife.” Yang Chen nodded before asking, “I still don’t know why Rose came over just now. Didn’t you guys just move in yesterday?”
Guo Xuehua wasn’t willing to continue talking about Yang Chen’s relationships. Sometimes certain things were best left ignored. Thus, she talked about how Rose saved her in the morning.
Born in a wealthy and powerful clan, Guo Xuehua didn’t panic too much for the attack she had suffered this morning. She calmly explained the occurence to Yang Chen from beginning to end.
Yang Chen felt lucky to have moved over. With Rose living right beside his house, this meant a lot of the elites from Red Thorns Society protecting Rose could grant his family protection at the same time. This could decrease his worry by a ton.
“Oh yeah, why isn’t Hui Lin here?” Yang Chen asked. Hui Lin and An Xin should’ve come back early in the morning. He found Hui Lin’s absence strange.
Guo Xuehua replied, “Hui Lin made a call to us earlier. She said Star of Yu Lei is coming soon, and she has to make use of her time to practise more, so she went to the company instead.”
While Yu Lei was facing a major challenge, its subsidiary company Yu Lei Entertainment was still operating as usual. Yang Chen could understand why Hui Lin chose to do so. Instead of feeling anxious at home, it was better for her to delve into her music and forget about the troubles instead.
Yang Chen looked around at the new, spacious environment. Smiling, he said, “Now that we’ve moved here, I’ll have to visit the place,” before entering the house.
Since it was a bungalow of the past generation, the internal design held a western design. Upon stepping into the house, Yang Chen felt that he had entered a western museum. The furniture in the living hall was produced in the last century. Since the material used was really high in quality, they looked as if brand new.
Yang Chen was used to staying in a house like this. He had a lot of experience living in such a place when he was abroad. However, when Wang Ma brought him to the second floor, he felt gloomy again…
“Wang Ma, why am I in a different room from Ruoxi again?” Yang Chen couldn’t help but ask. Wang Ma is so damn petty. Can’t she arrange me to be in the same room with Ruoxi? Also, staying in the same room doesn’t mean I have to do something. At least give me a chance to get lucky one day.
An unexpected voice then echoed from the door. “I believe it’s more appropriate for you to sleep at the sofa downstairs.”
Yang Chen was stopped from talking. Lin Ruoxi could be seen entering from the door after returning from the bank.
“So early? I believe the problem is dealt with now,” Yang Chen said with a smile while pressing against the railing on the second floor.
Lin Ruoxi kept quiet. Nostalgic, she looked at the surrounding tables, chairs, walls, and drawings.
When she saw the huge oil painting of a person’s portrait, her eyes became red and watery. Slowly walking toward the painting, she murmured, “Grandma, I’m back.”
The few people felt sorrowful to see Lin Ruoxi this way. At last, Wang Ma wiped her eyes before approaching Lin Ruoxi. Smiling, she said, “Miss, we’ve finally come back after so many years. Miss, let’s get upstairs to look at your room.”
“Is it the same room as before?” Lin Ruoxi asked.
“Nope.” Wang Ma’s eyes were filled with love when she gazed upon Lin Ruoxi with a smile. “Miss, you’re not ‘little miss’ anymore. The room back then is a little too small. It won’t be able to contain all your stuff, so I let the kid Zhenxiu stay there. Miss, you’ll be staying at Madam’s room back then.”
“My mother’s?” Lin Ruoxi was stunned. In her memory, her mother had always held a faint smile on her face while remaining quiet. She was left with nothing but fleeting memories of her mother.
Her mother felt like a lazy-looking sunflower in the sunlight, and a lonely flowering quince in the winter.
However, she must admit that a huge part of her appearance and behavior were inherited from the woman whom she had minimal memory of.
When Lin Ruoxi was young, she didn’t dare to enter her mother, Xue Zijing’s room. She had always felt that there was a gap between her and her mother. She was afraid of getting shunned upon if she entered the room. Thus, the room stayed a mystery to her.
Lin Ruoxi didn’t expect that she would be staying in the room the second she had moved back.
Nodding, Lin Ruoxi held her handbag and walked to the second floor. Squeaking sound could be heard from the wooden staircase. The handrail made of sandalwood released a vague fragrance, causing her to feel a lot more relaxed.
She came upstairs and saw Yang Chen who was standing in front of her. She took out the ink-colored Ring of Pluto from her handbag and passed it to Yang Chen. “Take it back.”
“Since this is so useful, why not keep it for now?” Yang Chen asked with a smile. He was sure Lin Ruoxi had found out the use of the ring.
Lin Ruoxi shook her head. “I won’t accept something that isn’t mine.”
“What are you talking about? What’s mine is yours just like what’s yours is mine.” Yang Chen shrugged his shoulders, but still received the ring.
Lin Ruoxi ignored Yang Chen’s chuckling face. She still had a bunch of questions in mind, but she didn’t feel like opening her mouth to ask anymore once she met the man. It might be better for him to tell me himself, Lin Ruoxi thought, before walking to her mother’s room.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Ruoxi pushed the door open. The door that she would shrink back from all the time, which had contained too many mysteries. The big, heavy door that belonged to her mother.