"Xiao Chuan, I heard that you picked Xiaoya off work today?" In dinner time, Li Rong feigned calmness to mention this matter.
Although Bai Zheng didn't report immediately to her about the matter of Bai Chuan walking out the company building while not bringing his phone, but she knew about this after Bai Chuan had been found. And although this wasn't her first time feeling dread about this kind of matter, her heart can't help but still has a lingering fear.
Previously, Bai Chuan also wandered off, actually it can't be said that he got lost, it was just Bai Chuan going out alone without anyone knowing where he had gone to. At that time, she was on tenterhooks, feeling worried and afraid while waiting for Bai Chuan. After he was found and came back, she held Bai Chuan in tears and told him not to go out alone in the future. However, she behaved calmly this time, just like as if Bai Chuan was a normal person, not fussing about anything about him going out alone.
"Ma, don't harp on Xiao Chuan about the matter this time." This was what Bai Zheng repeatedly urged to the Bai couple after he came back. Li Rong didn't understand why, but she knew that Bai Zheng always handled matters in a steady manner, whatever he said would have logical reasons behind it, so she didn't ask much and just talked about it casually on the dining table.
"En." Bai Chuan seemed to be in a good mood so his respond came out quickly.
"Why did you suddenly think of picking Xiaoya off work?" Li Rong asked again.
"Xiaoya suddenly saw me, very happy." Just now Xiaoya suddenly hugged him happily. From when they're small to big, Xiaoya never took the initiative to hug him, and now, she hugged him for so long.
Mu Xiaoya glanced Bai Chuan with a smile, approving this 'surprise' he made for her with the expression in her eyes.
The Bai family looked at the interaction between the two and they immediately felt a relief as they sighed with emotion. They were relieved by Bai Chuan's transformation, but fear that it would bring more uncertainty. Bai Chuan, who has followed his rules, has already exhausted their hearts and minds, not to mention now that he has changed…
"Xiao Chuan, which way did you take?" Bai Zheng curiously asked. He sent dozens of people, and he himself searched back and forth twice, but no one could find Bai Chuan's shadow.
"A lot of roads." The simple four words summarized the three hour journey. In fact, beside Mu Xiaoya, Bai Chuan has always spoken with others in a concise manner.
"Xiao Chuan, elaborate a bit, I'm also curious where you came from. Have you encountered anything interesting in the three hours you're on the road?" Mu Xiaoya wanted to understand the path that Bai Chuan traveled, because a similar situation might happen in the future, and if they could know about it in advance, it'd be more convenient to find him later.
"Okay." Bai Chuan put down his chopstick and began to recall his trip, "I came out of the company, turned right, entered Third Sannan Road, turned left at the intersection of Puhua Road, and walked all the way to Qiufeng Road, continued straight to Shangde Road before going to Qingyang Road…"
Bai Chuan said one road after another, some of these roads were known to Bai Zheng, but some weren't. However, it also made him understand why he couldn't find Bai Chuan after he sent so many people to search for him. From Yifeng to Mu Xiaoya's studio, the road wasn't complicated, one can just drive with a car along the Sannan Road to Minghai Road, then drive for another five kilometers and enter Guanchao Road. This obviously only required a trip on three roads, but Bai Chuan chose to cross a dozen different roads instead.
"Were you taking the short path?" Mu Xiaoya asked.
"En, if you go like this, you can shorten five kilometers." After going to Mu Xiaoya's studio once, Bai Chuan silently calculated the distance between the two on the map and naturally chose the shortest route to go.
Bai Chuan looked up slightly, as if asking for a praise. Mu Xiaoya clipped a piece of braised pork for him.
"You eat too." Bai Chuan also gave Mu Xiaoya a piece of everything.
After dinner, Mu Xiaoya made an excuse and sent Bai Chuan back to their room. Waiting until Bai Chuan left, Mu Xiaoya suddenly stood up from her seat and bowed deeply to the Bai parents, "Dad, Mom, I'm sorry."
"Xiaoya, what are you doing?" The Bai parents stood up in shock.
"Today's matter is all because of me. Xiao Chuan didn't tell on anyone in the company and ran out alone because he wanted to surprise me." No one on the Bai family blamed her on this matter, but even if the Bai family didn't mention this, Mu Xiaoya couldn't just pretend not to know.
"This child, what are you talking about, no one knows that this matter would happen ah." Li Rong consoled.
"But, if it weren't for me, Xiao Chuan wouldn't act like this." If it weren't for her, Bai Chuan would still go to and from work as before, and he wouldn't run out alone without saying a word. Putting herself from another' point of view, if her child was lost, even if she knew in her heart that she can't blame the other party, she'd still held an anger for a moment. What's more, this matter has a direct connection to her.
"Xiaoya, don't carry this matter on your back alone, if someone was to be blamed, Bai Zheng is actually the first person in charge of this matter." Bai Guoyu suddenly said.
Bai Zheng glanced at his father without saying a word.
"What are you looking at? At working time, aren't you in charge of looking after Xiao Chuan?" Bai Guoyu glared at his eldest son.
"That's right, it was my mistake." Bai Zheng didn't argue and simply admitted his mistake cleanly.
"But…"
"But, what?" Bai Zheng interrupted Mu Xiaoya.
Today, he searched for Bai Chuan twice along the way back and forth, although reason told him that Mu Xiaoya shouldn't be blamed for this matter, he still felt unsatisfied with Mu Xiaoya subconsciously. As she said, if it wasn't for her, Xiao Chuan wouldn't even have the idea of leaving alone. As he's able to think like this, he believed that his parents thought so too. It's just that they're all rational people, and even if they thought so subconsciously, they will still suppress this dissatisfaction.
Fortunately, Xiao Chuan was fine this time and soon went to Mu Xiaoya's studio, but if this time Xiao Chuan met with an accident, or like last time, found outside after a day and a night has passed? Bai Zheng thought to himself, if it was like that, he might bear a grudge towards Mu Xiaoya, even though he knew this matter had nothing to do with her, but people's hearts were just like this, there's no such thing as absolute selflessness.
But when he stood behind Xiao Chuan, watched at how Xiao Chuan walked for three hours, and at the moment when he saw Mu Xiaoya, how the look in his eyes suddenly changed so vividly, Bai Zheng suddenly felt, rather than letting his brother looking so lifeless as before, wouldn't it be better to let him be unscrupulous and willful sometime?
So when he came back, he told his parents to not mention about the matter of Xiao Chuan walking out alone in front of him, don't let him feel that today's matter was a mistake, and don't spoil the surprise he created so arduously. They wanted to act like Mu Xiaoya, pretend they know nothing, pretend that Xiao Chuan had hidden things very well, pretend to be pleasantly surprised.
"I know what you're worried about, you're afraid that Xiao Chuan would meet with an accident because of you, and you're afraid that we would blame you."
Mu Xiaoya gritted her teeth and didn't speak anything, but the expression on her face had explained everything. She indeed thought like this.
"Actually, at the beginning, I didn't quite agree with you marrying Xiao Chuan." Bai Zheng said suddenly. "Because I don't believe anyone who's not related by blood will be as wholeheartedly good towards Xiao Chuan as us."
"Bai Zheng?!" Bai Guoyu couldn't stand it anymore and shouted to stop his eldest son. Can't he see that Mu Xiaoya is already blaming herself? How can he sill say that?!
"Dad, let me finish saying this." Bai Zheng ignored Mu Xiaoya's pale face and continued to say, "I'll be the one to tell you that you guessed right, if anything happened to Xiao Chuan, we, in fact, would really blame you."
"Bai Zheng, don't say anymore." Li Rong can't look at it anymore, she comforted Mu Xiaoya and said, "Xiaoya, don't listen to his nonsense."
Mu Xiaoya didn't say anything, she stubbornly looked at Bai Zheng, waiting for him to finish talking.
"But… would you leave Xiao Chuan for fear that we would blame you?" Bai Zheng ignored his mother, and he continued to talk about this unfinished problem.
"No way." Mu Xiaoya replied without thinking.
"Then, what are you afraid of?" Bai Zheng asked, "You're Xiao Chuan's wife, Xiao Chuan's legal partner, either under law or under moral constriction, you are Xiao Chuan's closest person. If you have the closest relationship, you should bear the greatest responsibility, if you don't have this responsibility, then just divorce quickly."
Mu Xiaoya was silent, the Bai parents were also silent, at that time, the dining room was quiet for a while.
"I understand." Mu Xiaoya straightened her waist, her face no longer confused and remorseful. She smiled, then turned around to leave the dining room.
After Mu Xiaoya left, Li Rong looked at Bai Zheng with blame as she scolded, "What you said was obviously filled with good intention, but why can't you speak better?"
"How to speak better then?" Bai Zheng asked back.
"Couldn't you say that we wouldn't blame her no matter what happened?"
"This word, can you believe it yourself?"
"However, if you say it like this, Xiaoya's pressure is already big ah, it was already difficult for her to marry Xiao Chuan." Li Rong was scared that Bai Zheng's words would scare Mu Xiaoya away.
"Mom, Mu Xiaoya… really likes Xiao Chuan. Believe in her a bit." Saying this, Bai Zheng also left the dining room.
"…" Li Rong blanked for a while, it took her a while before the door was closed and she finally shouted, "What nonsense, where do I not trust Xiaoya?!"
"Alright, alright." Bai Guoyu appeased his agitated wife, "Bai Zheng probably thinks… Xiaoya had done better than us."
Bai Guoyu was actually more curious about what Bai Zheng saw that he suddenly had such a big change towards her. He had confirmed that Mu Xiaoya wouldn't easily divorce Bai Chuan before he decided to talk about this topic.
When Mu Xiaoya returned to the room, Bai Chuan was sitting quietly behind the desk while reading a book. As he heard the sound of her entering, he immediately put down the book and looked over.
"Your phone." Mu Xiaoya took Bai Chuan's phone out of her bag. This was handed over from Bai Zheng to her in the afternoon.
"I forgot that it was in the office this afternoon." Bai Chuan took it and recalled that he forgot his phone.
"Don't you have a super memory? How can you forget your phone?" Mu Xiaoya asked.
"I didn't think about it." Bai Chuan thought that this kind of 'forgetting' had nothing to do with his good memory, but he didn't know how to explain it to Mu Xiaoya, so he just simply chose not to explain it.
"Then, what if I want to find you if something happens?" Mu Xiaoya moved a square stool and sat across Bai Chuan.
"I was on my way to find you." Bai Chuan smiled.
"Then, what if I'm not in the studio because of some matter?"
"…" Bai Chuan frowned, suppose I try to walk to Xiaoya's studio but she's not there, and I don't have my phone thus I couldn't contact her… Suddenly, his mood became low, " I don't know."
"If you don't know, then just wait for me in that place." Mu Xiaoya took Bai Chuan's hand and said softly, "I will go and find you."
"But you wouldn't know if I'm going to go find you ah." Bai Chuan's logic is very strong, he remembered that to create this surprise, he didn't tell Mu Xiaoya in advance.
"As long as I want to find you, then I can find you."
"Then… I'll wait for you." Bai Chuan liked this sentence, he nodded happily.
"However… so as to prevent me from keeping you waiting for too long, don't forget to bring your phone next time, ok?"
"En." Bai Chuan clutched his phone firmly while promising earnestly, "I'll bring it with me in the future."
"And it has to be fully charged."
"En."
"Xiao Chuan… do you want to kiss me?"
Bai Chuan blinked and blinked and then leaned his body over, crossing half of the table to arrive in front of Mu Xiaoya's face.
The wind on the balcony lifted the corner of the curtain, blowing against Mu Xiaoya's long hair. The silky hair winding around the palms of the two entangled hands, scratching their hearts softly.
Author's NOTE:
As a normal student, it's especially easy to be possessed by the sleeping god while working on the school problems, not to mention that the study room of the Bai family was so comfortable.
As the young girl Ya fell into a deep sleep, her saliva drooled out and made half of the test paper wet.
Teenager Chuan frowned at the sight, he exhausted his energy to pull out the paper from under young girl Ya's arms and dried it under the sun.
When he looked back, the saliva continued to flow down the desk.
Teenager Chuan could only sit beside young girl Ya and help her wipe her saliva little by little with tissues.
Young girl Ya woke up and opened her eyes, seeing the teenager's flourishing beauty up close, she couldn't help but blush.
"You… why are you watching me sleep?"
"You're drooling."
The young girl followed the teenager's line of sight to find a trash can fully filled with tissues.
—-
TL NOTE:
All this time, I guess it can't be helped that Xiaoya was still seen as an 'outsider' by the Bai family. But Bai Zheng had recognized Xiaoya's feeling to Xiao Chuan was genuine at this time, and I hope that one day, they can really become a 'family'. (◕‿◕✿)
Random rant: I guess because every day is filled with corona matter, when I was translating this, I kept on thinking like 'have you sanitized the phone?' or 'nooo, you can't kiss right now' and then I'll be like… wait wut?