Chapter 9

Siran.

This was the first time the other party had called her that, but Xu Siran had absolutely no attention to spare for such details. All her focus landed on the sentence before it.

—“Help me put it on.”

What she was supposed to put on was obvious.

Her thoughts were a mess, her brain as if a typhoon had swept through it. Xu Siran lowered her eyes and looked at the diamond rings on the velvet cushion. Although she did not know how much they cost, the craftsmanship was exquisite and the design was extremely beautiful. One glance was enough to tell they were unimaginably expensive.

Right now, she could not think too much. Although the result of opening the gift box was completely opposite to what she had imagined, the plan still needed to continue as usual. She still had to maintain her chirpy, somewhat clingy “hot violence persona,” and she had to keep working harder.

So she picked up the blue diamond ring, lifted her eyes to look at Ni Jia, curved her eyes, and smiled. She really wanted to summon all her courage in one go and hold the other party’s hand, but the aura of the person beside her was just too… cold and imposing. Holding the ring in her right hand, she stretched out her left hand palm-up and asked in a rather small voice,

“…Sister, can I hold your hand?”

Ni Jia observed her expression. The moment the other party got into the car, she had shown a very faint smile. After opening the gift box and seeing the two rings, she had clearly frozen for a moment, as if she found it unbelievable.

After buffering, however, she quickly picked up the ring, curved her eyes, smiled at Ni Jia, and called her Sister in a gentle voice.

And so, Ni Jia placed her left hand in her palm, her gaze calm as she watched the person beside her lightly hold it back and lift her hand. Perhaps because of Xu Siran’s living environment growing up, when she slipped the wedding ring over Ni Jia’s ring finger and pushed it forward, the thin calluses on the index and middle fingers of her right hand scraped against Ni Jia’s skin, tickling like a small feather.

Only when the wedding ring was pushed securely to the base [Read on BaiLianTales]of her finger did Xu Siran’s softened breathing gradually return to its normal rhythm. She was actually still a little nervous, especially when she inevitably touched the other party’s palm and fingertips.

Fortunately, it was finally completed smoothly. She let out a sigh of relief and was just about to put Ni Jia’s hand down and withdraw her own, intending to gush a few grand words of praise, when before she could pull away, the other party held her hand in return.

!! Eh?!

Her eyes rounded a little. She wanted to ask, Aren’t you letting go? But she also felt that this would conflict with the hot violence plan and persona, because according to the rules of hot violence, not only could she not let go and avoid her, she had to chase after the other party and stick close! Stick so close that the other party became annoyed with her!

And so, she pursed her lips and let the other party hold her hand. She wanted to say something, but clumsily did not know what would be most appropriate.

In those few short moments, her thoughts leapt and tugged through several hundred rounds, while Ni Jia, beside her, merely said, “I’ll put yours on.”

“…Mm.” Xu Siran thought for a moment and added, “Sister, this pair of rings is so beautiful. I really like them.”

Ni Jia slipped the wedding ring over her ring finger. Hearing this, she glanced at her. “Mm. It’s good that you like them.”

? What did “it’s good that you like them” mean?! Xu Siran felt that everything happening today was a little strange. For example, the other party appearing here, and also these two pairs of rings.

Before Ni Jia appeared, she had thought that the jewelry set was the other party’s way of brushing her off, and the five hundred thousand that followed into her meal card too. She had thought that because she shared all three meals with Ni Jia every day, the other party had become terribly annoyed and recharged her card so that she would eat more and stop chirping away.

Could it be… she had misunderstood?

Then she heard the person beside her say, “We’re going back to the old residence for dinner tonight.”

…Oh!

So they were going home to act like a loving couple in front of the elders!

Thinking of all the matters regarding wealthy-family marriage alliances that her good friend Qinghe had mentioned to her, Xu Siran finally understood why Ni Jia had come to pick her up and why she had given her rings.

Half an hour later, night fell. The black luxury car drove into a Chinese-style courtyard. Following the driveway inward, Xu Siran was actually a little surprised when she got out of the car.

It was not because she was shocked by this expensive mansion and courtyard, but because Eldest Young Lady Ni had not first brought her back to Shujin Liyuan to change clothes.

In the past, when she returned to the Xu family’s old residence for meals, her mother would have her change clothes in advance. Usually, it would be an expensive dress chosen for her.

Today, because she had been at school, her face was completely bare. Her hair was casually tied into a bun. After taking off her white sun-protective jacket, she only had on a white short-sleeved shirt and jeans underneath. Apart from an ordinary retro-style wristwatch on her wrist, there were no extra embellishments or ornaments on her entire body.

If she dressed like this to eat at the Xu family’s old residence, her mother… would definitely talk about her, and the other people her age in the clan would also say she could not get rid of the shabby air on her body.

In truth, she did not care about this kind of talk. When she was studying in the past, her classmates had also all known her family circumstances were poor, and there would occasionally be some different kinds of comments. But she could not withstand both the soft and hard tactics of her mothers, so when they told her to change, she did not refuse either.

After they got out of the car together, Ni Jia first took a work call. When the call ended and she looked back, she saw that the few hazy strands of sunset glow left in the night had all fallen across the surface of the pond.

Xu Siran was standing by the pond. The bun tied with a blue-and-white hair tie had loosened somewhat, but she knew nothing of it. She was lowering her head and looking at the koi, as if silently counting exactly how many fish were in the pond. When Ni Jia drew closer, she even heard her muttering softly.

“…Honghong, you’ve gotten a little round from eating. If this continues, it’ll increase the burden on your internal organs.” Perhaps because Xu Siran had not noticed her, Ni Jia heard her sneakily add, “You need to swim more and exercise.”

Was Honghong the name she had given the koi in the pond? Ni Jia thought.

Stepping closer to look, sure enough, the one playing in the pond at that moment was a red-and-white koi. There were also a few gold and silver koi, as well as showa koi, but only this red-and-white koi was the roundest.

The fish were more alert than a certain person. As soon as Ni Jia came to a stop, the entire pond of fish darted behind the artificial rockery. And a certain person tilted her head as if somewhat puzzled, her gaze following the fish. Only after all the fish disappeared did she turn around and discover Ni Jia.

It so happened that the butler came over at this moment, so Xu Siran did not say anything else. Only when they were about to leave the koi pond and head toward the front hall did she hear the person beside her say, “Siran, your hair is coming loose.”

Xu Siran instinctively reached up to touch her hair tie. Her bun was beyond saving, so she simply loosened it and let it fall into a ponytail. Just as she was about to withdraw her hand, Ni Jia beside her took a step closer and raised her hand to pluck off the hibiscus flower that had fallen into her hair.

Hibiscus flowers bloom in the morning and fall by dusk. Xu Siran looked at that pink-white petal and wanted to say thank you, but then remembered that the butler was beside them. Since they were supposed to be a loving couple, there was no need to be so polite.

But she truly lacked experience. She could not squeeze out any other words, so she could only smile at Ni Jia and say, “All right, let’s go in.”

“Mm.”

If no one said this was a private residence, Xu Siran, who had come here for the first time, would probably have thought it was a classical garden park, with ancient tiled roofs, carved railings, flowers blooming like brocade, and winding paths leading into secluded places.

So much so that when she saw the appearance of smart robots, Xu Siran felt a tiny bit of dissonance.

After entering the front courtyard, the first things that leapt into view were two multicolored crabapple trees. Beneath the crabapple tree planted on the right were two rattan chairs and a wooden table, with two palm-leaf fans placed on the tabletop.

She withdrew her gaze, passed through the hanging-flower gate, and entered the inner courtyard. Then three gazes landed on her at the same time.

Although she was a little nervous, ​read the original at bailiantales.com​Xu Siran was neither servile nor overbearing. She politely greeted the three elders.

Sitting in the main seats were the two old madams of the Ni family and Ni Jia’s biological mother, Ni Xuan. The two old madams had occupied high positions for many years, yet they looked especially kind and approachable. They smiled as they looked her over, and seeing that she was dressed simply and comfortably, there was not the slightest disgust in their eyes.

“You must be hungry after coming all this way, right?” Luo Chunzhen asked with a smile.

Ni Jia did not speak, so all the elders looked at Xu Siran. Xu Siran had not gotten to eat the rice-stuffed chicken wings, roasted pork trotters, or coconut milk shaved ice qingbuliang she had planned on today. She had already been hungry halfway through the journey.

Being watched by everyone, she still felt a little embarrassed and nodded like a chick pecking rice as she answered.

“Let’s go eat, then.” Seeing this, Ni Xuan said gently.

On the way to the restaurant in the back courtyard, whatever the elders asked, Xu Siran answered very seriously. And when Luo Chunzhen brought up making up for the honeymoon, she also reacted very quickly and said, “It’s okay. Sister is very busy with work.”

Ni Xuan glanced at her daughter. Standing together, Xu Siran discovered that the mother and daughter looked alike, but the feeling they gave people was completely different. Ni Xuan always looked at them with smiling eyes, gentle like hazy mountain rain on a spring night.

Ni Jia, on the other hand, was like a distant, unreachable suspended moon, cold as frost and keeping people a thousand miles away.

Between questions and answers, they soon arrived at the restaurant in the back courtyard. Xu Siran had originally thought there would only be the few of them, but she had not expected that many people were seated around the long ancient-wood table. Most of them were elders and younger members of the family around her age.

Fortunately… the atmosphere was not as strange and awkward as Xu Siran had imagined. After greeting everyone, she sat beside Ni Jia and lowered her head to eat. Perhaps because they were very afraid of Ni Jia, the younger people at the end of the table kept looking at them but never said anything.

This actually made Xu Siran a tiny bit happy, because she did not have to deal with people the way she did at the Xu family.

But very soon, Xu Siran could no longer be happy. Not long after dinner, torrential rain began pouring down. Travel became inconvenient, ​Read on BaiLianTales​and Ni Xuan looked at the endless rain curtain before suggesting,

“The rain is too heavy. Why don’t you stay overnight at the old residence? Your bedroom was only cleaned this morning.”

Xu Siran paused. Stay… overnight! If she understood correctly, a newlywed loving couple staying overnight would probably, maybe, possibly sleep in the same… same room, right?

Realizing this, Xu Siran silently prayed in her heart that Ni Jia would definitely refuse.

But things went against her wishes. Ni Jia answered, “All right.”