Contractual Cohabitation GL - Chapter 11

Parking the car in the same spot where she had first picked up Ye Luochen for their date, Jing Xiaonan removed her sunglasses and got out of the car.

Looking up at the six-story apartment building with its distinctive exterior, Jing Xiaonan felt for her phone in her pocket.

There was an intercom at the main entrance, but she had no idea which floor or apartment Ye Luochen lived in. Yet, calling would seem to ruin the element of surprise and romance. Jing Xiaonan ran her fingers through her short hair on her forehead and subconsciously looked left and right.

In her peripheral vision, she thought she caught a familiar figure in the park across the street, but it was just a fleeting glimpse and too far away, so Jing Xiaonan couldn’t see clearly. She turned around and looked into the distance. In one corner of the small, grassy park, there was a patch of ground covered with wood chips, where several brightly colored wooden horses, a seesaw, and two swings on iron chains were located.

The key point was that a girl was sitting on one of the swings. She had a slender figure and dark hair falling down her back. She was sitting alone in the seemingly deserted park. From this angle, Jing Xiaonan could only see her back and not her face.

It was a bit far to be sure if this girl was Ye Luochen, but she followed her intuition and crossed the quiet street. After a slight pause, she walked towards the girl with her back to her.

As she got closer, Jing Xiaonan gradually saw things more clearly. The girl was just sitting on the swing without swinging, her legs seemingly resting on the ground. One hand held a phone to her left ear. Her words were not very clear, but it was undoubtedly Ye Luochen’s voice.

Jing Xiaonan’s advancing steps paused slightly. She frowned, wondering if it was wrong to eavesdrop on her conversation. But for some reason, she ultimately did not stop; instead, she slowed her pace and gradually approached.

Just then, the voice came through again, and this time the content could finally be distinguished.

“I never wanted to live this kind of life…”

Jing Xiaonan could tell that Ye Luochen was desperately suppressing something in her voice, but it still revealed her turbulent emotions at the moment.

“If it’s something I should do, I will do it, but this kind of thing is unnecessary, and I can’t do it. I’m not being willful, not rebellious, I just want to live an ordinary life.”

The other party seemed to say something more, and then the call ended. Ye Luochen held the phone in front of her, staring blankly for a while, then finally bent over, buried her head, and hugged herself.

Jing Xiaonan’s already slowed steps quickened. She circled around from about five meters behind Ye Luochen, approaching her from the front, intentionally stepping heavier to create distinct footsteps.

Although completely immersed in her emotions at the moment, the usually sensitive Ye Luochen still heard the deliberately amplified sound. She slowly raised her head to look at the source of the sound, and saw that the person walking towards her was that person.

Her already slightly red eyes widened into large red circles. Ye Luochen unconsciously pouted her small mouth with a wronged expression, then lowered her head again.

Seeing this expression, Jing Xiaonan’s heart skipped a beat. She lunged forward, kneeling on one knee in front of her to lower her height. She reached out her hands, but paused them in mid-air, finally grasping the iron chains of the swing on both sides of Ye Luochen. Looking up at Ye Luochen, Jing Xiaonan’s expression was focused and uneasy.

Ye Luochen hugged herself without moving for a long time, but eventually couldn’t resist the fervent gaze of a certain person. After a short while, she raised her head from her buried face and arms.

Her exquisite beauty now revealed an image of sadness and helplessness. Her fair face was flushed, either from lack of oxygen or grievance, and her whole body trembled slightly. One or two tears hung on her curved eyelashes, about to fall, but her lips were pursed into a stubborn curve.

Jing Xiaonan took a sharp breath, her heart constricting.

Releasing the iron chains, she directly wrapped her arms around Ye Luochen and hugged her tightly. Due to the uncomfortable posture and the person in her arms, Jing Xiaonan’s back was straight, her body slightly stiff. She didn’t ask why, nor did she utter words of comfort. She just held her tightly, gently stroking her back with one hand.

Being held like this, Ye Luochen’s tears finally broke free, and her shoulder trembling became more noticeable, but she consistently bit her lip, not making a sound.

Closing her eyes, Jing Xiaonan felt a pang of pain in her heart.

Although she clearly felt Qin Yan’s displeasure, Jing Xiaonan insisted on canceling all her social engagements for the day and drove Ye Luochen to the seaside.

Barefoot, she felt the cool, slightly damp sand sink into small pits beneath her feet as she moved. Ye Luochen smelled the salty sea breeze blowing from the ocean, and her ears were filled with the peaceful, hypnotic sound of the waves. Finally, a sense of calm gradually extended from her expression to her inner self.

Jing Xiaonan’s leather shoes had been left in the car. She now stood on the side closest to the sea to shield Ye Luochen from the strong wind, holding Ye Luochen’s shoes and socks, which she had only been able to persuade her to take off after repeated attempts.

The two walked side by side along the coastline in silence, their hands occasionally brushing against each other’s. Jing Xiaonan would occasionally turn her head to glance at Ye Luochen’s beautiful profile, but she never broke the peaceful atmosphere.

After walking a circuit on the beach and reaching the end of the golden sand, Jing Xiaonan was about to lead Ye Luochen up the steps when she saw her turn back a few steps, squatting down with her hand on her skirt, picking up a seashell mostly buried in the sand.

Jing Xiaonan walked back to her side, looked at the small shell cupped in her hand. It was mainly white, with some dark patterns, and a small piece was missing from the right corner. Overall, it was unremarkable, but Ye Luochen held it tightly in her palm, walked a few steps towards the sea, bent down to wash the shell clean in the tide, and then stepped back.

Jing Xiaonan took a tissue from her pocket, took the shell, wiped it dry, and returned it to Ye Luochen, saying gently, “Can we go back now?”

The owner of the shell looked up at her, her expression gentle, almost innocent, and then nodded lightly.

“Actually, I wasn’t pampered and spoiled as the young lady of the Ye family since I was a child.”

Ye Luochen said this while sitting in a quiet cafe by the beach. She held the hot chocolate Jing Xiaonan had ordered for her, letting the warm temperature slowly permeate her heart.

Jing Xiaonan, sitting on her left, added milk from the iron teapot to her English tea, looking focused on listening, but not staring at Ye Luochen for the next part of the story.

“I heard that my grandfather, Ye Tiancong, the Chairman of the Maple Leaf Group, was an unknown apprentice fifty years ago. He had nothing at that time, but he was ambitious and reckless in his youth, and actually captivated my grandmother, who came from a good family. In the language of the time, this was called a private, lifelong commitment.”

“Later, for various reasons, my grandfather followed his master to Hong Kong, and my grandmother stayed in Guangdong. They couldn’t be together after all. But after my grandfather reached Hong Kong, he found out that my grandmother was pregnant with his child. However, in that kind of environment, even contact was extremely difficult, and my grandfather couldn’t come back at all. That child is my father.”

This was the first time she had spoken so much, especially about such personal content, which touched Jing Xiaonan’s heart. Ye Luochen, who had gradually entered a state of self-talk, just stared at the view outside the window, sharing her background for the first time with anyone.

“It was very hard for my grandmother to raise my father alone, but she never gave up and never married again. My father wasn’t educated to be a talent or scholar; he just got an ordinary job, like my grandfather did back then. But I didn’t expect the similarities to be more than that. Even the story of my mother falling in love with him at first sight was almost the same as my grandparents’ back then. They got married and had me.”

Not knowing what she was thinking, Ye Luochen regained her focus. Some emotions flashed across her eyes, but in the end, she just sighed almost imperceptibly: “Later, when I was nineteen, technology was developed enough, and my grandfather was influential enough to expand back to the mainland. He finally found my father and me. He insisted on acknowledging us and wanted us to return to the big family he had built. I initially didn’t want this identity, and all the good and bad that came with it, but later… you already know the ending.”

Knowing that these words only revealed the tip of the iceberg of the whole story, Jing Xiaonan was still sensitive enough to hear the helplessness in her words. She nodded gently, her tone as heavy and slow as Ye Luochen’s: “Many people would surely think you are being presumptuous or deliberately aloof. You must have endured a lot of unknown hardships.”

This single sentence inadvertently touched the deepest, most unseen part of Ye Luochen’s heart, causing ripples within her. She clenched her teeth and remained silent, but her stubborn demeanor confirmed Jing Xiaonan’s statement.

Reaching out her hand, Jing Xiaonan gently cupped Ye Luochen’s small, exquisite face with her warm palm, and slowly stroked the area beneath her moon-like eyes with her thumb, wiping away that slight dampness. Due to this action, Ye Luochen momentarily dropped all her emotional defenses, looking as fragile as a lost kitten.

“You want to leave. You want to come to Australia.”

Jing Xiaonan looked at her seriously, without smiling, and stated.

Feeling the pity in her gaze, but unable to meet such tenderness, Ye Luochen lowered her eyes and nodded.

Withdrawing her hand, Jing Xiaonan sighed, closed her eyes as if making a decision. She rested her arms on the sofa armrests and leaned back against the sofa back. Both of them fell into silence.

She could hear the occasional passing car outside, the coffee machine at the counter, and even the clock ticking on the wall above. Ye Luochen thought the topic had passed and that Jing Xiaonan was not going to say anything more, when the person who had been sitting motionless for a long time suddenly sat up slowly.

Looking steadily at her, Jing Xiaonan did not speak immediately. Sensing the strangeness in the person opposite her, as if anticipating something, Ye Luochen’s eyelashes fluttered. She finally looked over, seeing a pair of eyes that were clear to the bottom.

“Luochen,” Jing Xiaonan said word by word, her eyes showing a determination Ye Luochen had never seen before. “Let’s get married.”