Su Lanqiao held the phone for a while, then realized he hadn't called back Chu Cheng. The first time, there was no answer, the second time was a reminder that the phone was turned off. He opened WeChat and typed:
【Mr. Chu, are you... angry?】
【You didn't answer the call, can you reply to my message?】
【I was wrong, please don't ignore me...】
【Sobbing uncontrollably.JPG】
【Begging for forgiveness in the icy snow.JPG】
【Your cutie is going to sleep.JPG】
No matter how many expressions he sent, after half an hour, Chu Cheng still hadn't replied.
"Damn it, I've angered the leopard," muttered Su Lanqiao, pacing back and forth in the room, feeling as uncomfortable as if being tormented. He regretted it, he shouldn't have been so impulsive. Wasn't it good to be intimate with Chu Cheng? It could have progressed naturally, why did he have to test his luck. Su Lanqiao scratched his head in frustration and circled the room again. The conversation box remained stuck on the question he had sent, he didn't expect Chu Cheng's reaction to be so strong, directly rejecting any communication with him. What if he never spoke to him again in the future? His heart clenched fiercely, unable to imagine the consequences. "You really are an idiot," Su Lanqiao slapped his forehead, lit a cigarette, and resigned himself to smoking to death. After smoking a few cigarettes, his throat felt burning, but his mind was still clear. Many scenes flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, about his parents, his childhood, and Chu Cheng...the more he thought, the more his heart ached. Su Lanqiao took out his earphones, plugged them in, and played an audio file, it was a collection of voice calls from Chu Cheng to him, which he had exported and crudely edited himself. Chu Cheng rarely sent voice messages on WeChat, so Su Lanqiao had used a recording app to capture the phone calls. He listened to them when he couldn't sleep. The earlier recordings were all sorts of random conversations, but towards the end, it became a repetitive chant of Chu Cheng calling out "little cat". Had his own foolishness cost him the opportunity to hear Chu Cheng call him like that again in the future? This voice had a soothing effect, it was also hypnotic. He didn't know how he had fallen asleep, the long flight combined with overwhelming emotions. When Su Lanqiao woke up, it was already in the afternoon. He rubbed his faintly aching temples and saw a message on the phone from Lai Yan, "Where are you? I'll come over to see you."
Sulan Qiao sent the room number, and then sat on the bed for a while, feeling that her mind was still blank.
Chu Cheng still hadn't replied to her message. The question seemed to sink like a stone in the sea, with no response.
Sulan Qiao was beginning to realize the seriousness of the situation. At this point, she didn't dare to argue, realizing that in Chu Cheng's eyes, arguing would be seen as covering up and making excuses.
The doorbell rang, and he tied up his messy hair with a rubber band, then got up to open the door.
"Ryan, why did you come?" Sulan Qiao was surprised to see the person standing outside the door.
Ryan bowed and respectfully said, "Young Master, can I come in first?"
Sulan Qiao let him in and closed the door behind him.
Ryan glanced at the ashtray filled with cigarette butts and the dimly lit room, sighed, "I was afraid you hadn’t eaten, so I brought you something to eat."
"Thank you," Sulan Qiao said casually as she opened the package and stuffed a piece of fried fish into her mouth.
"Also, the funeral time has been moved up due to the bad weather over the next few days. It will be at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. I will send you the address on your phone in a while," Ryan said, helping him pick up the scattered clothes on the floor and neatly folding them on the nearby recliner as he discussed the matter at hand.
Sulan Qiao nodded and took a sip of the drink, which was still cold.
British food really leaves much to be desired. Fish and chips as a national dish... he missed all kinds of delicious food back home, especially the seafood Chu Cheng brought him a few days ago.
Ugh, everything leads back to this person, Chu Cheng.
Sulan Qiao felt so irritated that it almost choked him. Nowhere to vent his frustration, he muttered, "Got it, you can go back now."
Ryan walked around the room and tidied up the things before handing him a few files. "These are the personal profiles and contact information of the people I mentioned to you yesterday. If you can be more generous and split the assets evenly, this matter can be resolved quickly. Please make your decision as soon as possible; we really can't wait any longer."
Sulan Qiao looked at each detailed profile in the documents for a moment and murmured, "Okay, I understand."
After a minute, the doorbell rang again.
Sulan Qiao slowly walked over to open the door with the stack of documents in his arms. "Ryan, you talk too much... what’s up again..."
Sulan Qiao opened the door, and there stood Chu Cheng, looking dusty and windswept, with a hint of exhaustion in his eyes, and a tinge of stubble on his chin.
Seeing the person in front of her, Sulan Qiao's pent-up anxiety from the whole night instantly dissipated. "Mr. Chu, why are you here?"
As she spoke, Sulan Qiao wanted to rush forward and hug him. But before his hand could reach Chu Cheng's neck, Chu Cheng gently pushed him away with his left hand. "Did you go to meet your potential spouse?"
He had come all this way to settle the score.
"Come in first," Sulan Qiao said, absorbed in the joy of seeing Chu Cheng, and after pushing him in, she locked the door before speaking in a coquettish tone, "Are you angry? You didn't reply to my message, so I was just bluffing; I had no intention of meeting anyone."
Sulan Qiao's eyes swept over Chu Cheng again and couldn't help but smile. This man had come all the way here overnight, showing that he cared for him very much.
Chu Cheng still had the same calm expression on his face. Taking the documents from Sulan Qiao's hand, he casually looked through them one by one, "Blair, 20 years old, a student at Oxford University, with a 4.0 GPA, conditions are good."
"Kristen, 23 years old, a jewelry designer from a family in the jewelry business, quite good-looking. The note says that she is your preferred candidate."
"The Duke of Arthur, a homosexual duke... well, you really have a wide selection, both male and female."
Sulan Qiao nervously reached out to grab the documents, but Chu Cheng dodged his hand. "Oh, don't bother, these were all given to me by the butler."
Chu Cheng sat on the sofa, legs crossed, looking at him lightly, "You said you wanted to enter into a marriage contract with someone. The contact details are written on them. Go ahead."
The moment he heard Sulan Qiao say he wanted to marry someone else, he was panic-stricken. In that instant, he realized that he had fallen for Sulan Qiao. It was genuine, not treating him as a pet or a long-term bedfellow.
Finally understanding his recent string of abnormal actions, such as protecting him and feeling concerned about him, were all due to developing feelings for him.
Having clarified these thoughts, his possessiveness surged. He didn't want to hand him over to someone else, even if it was all superficial.
During the seven-hour flight to London, he didn't sleep for a second, feeling unprecedentedly unsteady and afraid that Sulan Qiao would finalize the matter in a fit of impulse.
Yet, now that he saw the jumbled mess of documents, his anger swelled up again.
He was wrong, the kid didn't like him that much. He didn't even consider him as an option, and he sounded like he wanted to sever ties in their previous conversation.
Sulan Qiao squeezed in beside him, legs touching, and said in a coaxing tone, "I won't go, why should I? It was the butler’s suggestion; suggestions can be ignored."
"Tell me, is this how the butler advised you? How to negotiate a marriage contract?" Chu Cheng dismissed his explanation, propping his forehead and looking at him.
Sulan Qiao nervously said, "It's a six-month agreement. Besides the house, the assets can be split evenly. You know, I mainly just want that house."
"You're quite generous, Young Master." Chu Cheng chuckled, fumbling for the lighter in his pocket before recalling he had left it at the airport.
Looking down at the ashtray full of cigarette butts and the lighter alongside, he picked it up and lit a cigarette. "So, you've picked up smoking as well? How many things have you been doing behind my back?"
"I was in a bad mood yesterday, and I won't do it again in the future." Sulan Qiao didn’t realize the extent of Chu Cheng's misunderstanding as he continued to digress, "I was just teasing you yesterday. I won’t get into a contract marriage. I'll earn money and buy the house back in the future."
Chu Cheng took a gentle puff of smoke, then spoke in a deep voice, "No need for that hassle. I'll marry you."
"Huh? You'll... marry me?" Sulan Qiao quietly repeated the words, "But why..."
He swallowed the sentence "Do you like me" back down, but it was obvious, right? If he didn't like him, what did Chu Cheng want?
Chu Cheng fixed his gaze on him and slowly spoke, "Isn’t it a marriage contract with the assets split evenly? Consider it making some extra cash for six months. I am a businessman, this is a secure investment."
In these few seconds, Sulan Qiao's emotions fluctuated wildly as he was elated and then plunged back into despair.
This was exactly what he had hoped for. What else was he hoping for? Was he expecting Chu Cheng to be with him because he genuinely liked him?
Even if it was fake, it was Chu Cheng, and that was good enough.