©Novel Buddy
MTL - His Marriage Partner is Scheming-Chapter 7
After walking, Chi Xueyan watched He Qiao drive away after returning home, and stood by the side of the road lazily waving goodbye to him.
After the sound of the car motor had completely faded away and he had done enough superficial work, he turned around and walked home.
The house was filled with a strong scent of roses. Aunt Ling moved them to the balcony before she got off work, saying that they could be made into sachets after they were dried, so that so many flowers should not be wasted.
As soon as Chi Xueyan entered the room, he saw his mother who had deliberately stayed in the living room waiting for him.
Han Zhenzhen leaned on the sofa and applied a mask, and asked him gossipingly, "Does the ring look good?"
In fact, he hasn't opened the velvet box yet, so he can only say vaguely: "It's okay, put it on for a while, and change it later."
Han Zhenzhen let out an oh, and changed the subject: "You two walk together, and you look like a good match."
Chi Xueyan knew her too well, so she laughed and said, "Mom, what exactly do you want to say?"
"It's nothing." Han Zhenzhen whispered, "He Qiao looks like a good boy, but if you don't get along well, you can take care of him, and your father and I will take care of him together."
She spoke quickly, as if she didn't want to bore her son, and then asked: "The certificate is so hasty, do you still want a wedding? Do you want to do it?"
"Think." Chi Xueyan answered her patiently, "We haven't decided what style we want, which one do you like?"
Given the family backgrounds of both parties, the marriage will naturally not proceed silently.
"I have to think about it, there are too many new tricks now." Han Zhenzhen was finally happy, and muttered, "By the way, I have to find someone to make a good day."
Seeing the worry and reluctance behind her mother's relaxed expression, it was rare for Chi Xueyan not to object to her superstitious behavior.
He went to the kitchen to heat up the milk, put it in front of Han Zhenzhen, and then carefully inserted the straw: "After applying the mask, go to bed early, I'll go upstairs to take a shower first."
At night when it became quiet again, the mother nestled on the sofa waved to her son who suddenly had a partner: "Yanyan, good night."
Holding the small and sturdy ring box in the palm of Chi Xueyan's hand, she shed her usual carelessness, looked back and responded docilely: "Good night, Mom."
A long and special day is finally over.
Chi Xueyan grabbed the tail of the weekend and slept until the sun was up.
When he got up the next day, he said he was going to find He Qiao, and Han Zhenzhen, who had recovered his previous appearance, immediately waved him out.
Crossing the familiar street, Chi Xueyan walked alone into the SCA bar where the neon lights were not yet on.
The business hours have not yet arrived, there are no customers in the store, and there are traces of the carnival everywhere. Wang Shaojing is holding the ladder, and the bar staff standing on it are carefully peeling off the movie poster.
The hem of the villain doctor's white clothes was rolled up and put into a deep poster tube.
When Wang Shaojing saw him coming, he was a little surprised: "It's broad daylight, rare visitor."
Chi Xueyan smiled: "Come and have a seat."
Coming back to this place that used to mean happiness and relaxation, I have a completely different mood.
This was the starting point of an abrupt twist in his fortunes.
He sat down in front of the bar, Wang Shaojing finished the work at hand, came over to entertain him personally: "What do you want to drink?"
There is a storage box on the bar counter, which is full of small items such as mobile phones, glasses, keys, etc. Chi Xueyan glanced at it and replied, "Whatever."
"Then I'll give you a glass of lovelorn special." Wang Shaojing joked, "Generally only people who are lovelorn can order it, you are an exception."
He skillfully mixed drinks and chattered about trivial matters: "I played crazy yesterday morning, and I didn't rest until morning. Now that I am old, I slept for a whole day before I recovered. When I came back, I was like a **** shop owner, waiting for these children. Came here to look for the lost things. By the way, you left early that day, and it was the first time you left halfway in the past few years. Are you busy?"
When Wang Shaojing said this, he gently pushed the cup in front of him, and finally changed into a serious tone, and greeted his old friend who was obviously worried: "Xiaochi, what happened?"
Hearing this address, a trace of complicated emotions crossed Chi Xueyan's face. He stretched out his hand to hold the glass, and there were no traces of wearing a ring on his white and slender knuckles.
"I can't tell." Chi Xueyan said in a low voice.
He was just a little dazed.
A kind of daze that slowly grows when staring at the calm sea after avoiding the stormy waves for a while.
Chi Xueyan didn't know when the next storm would come, let alone whether they would really come.
But his life has been irreversibly changed. He wants to move forward hand in hand with a strange lover, and tries to deceive his closest family members.
Although he enjoys pursuing novelty on weekdays, even though he tries to convince himself that it is necessary, it is inevitable to have deep doubts at some moments.
Is what he's doing right now?
Wang Shaojing observed his gloomy expression, and said clearly: "Call me if you want to chat, if you don't want to drink enough, I will remember to call a car to take you back, try not to let you lie here until dark .”
Chi Xueyan raised the corners of her lips and said with a smile, "Okay."
There was a knock on the door outside: "Is anyone there?"
Wang Shaojing responded in a loud and familiar voice: "Aren't you here to find something? Come in!"
The door opened and closed, and the stranger walked to the bar and said to Wang Shaojing, "Hello, I came here with my friends on Friday night, and today I found out that I lost a bunch of keys to the school laboratory, and he happened to go home , so I’ll come and look for him first.”
Wang Shaojing pointed to the storage box on the side: "It's all here. After you find it, you need to register your phone number and the items you took away, in case you turn around and find that you took the wrong one."
"Okay, thank you."
Chi Xueyan stared at the glass in front of her in a daze, not paying attention to the movement around her.
Until the other party took the initiative to call him: "Chi Xueyan?"
Chi Xueyan froze suddenly, belatedly realizing that the stranger's voice was slightly familiar.
He turned his head and saw the tall boy with a cold and distant demeanor.
Seeing the stunned look on the face of the person in front of him, Lu Siyi paused: "...I should remember the name correctly, right?"
Lu Siyi, who is outstanding in appearance, is often approached by people, and he basically forgets it when he turns his head. That night, he was dragged to the bar by his friends to watch a horror movie. Give him a clipboard and chat a few words.
Originally, he didn't take it seriously, but after the two exchanged names, the other party seemed a little lost, and then ended the conversation hastily, and the subtle weirdness left an impression on him.
Now seeing Chi Xueyan sitting in the bar drinking in broad daylight, Lu Siyi frowned, and said proactively, "Are you okay that day?"
Chi Xueyan was stunned for a few seconds before saying: "No, I'm fine."
A sudden storm crashed onto the sea.
He tried his best to maintain his superficial calm, and pretended to greet casually: "Are you looking for something?"
At the same time, Chi Xueyan gently pushed the glass in his hand towards the inside of the bar.
"Yeah." Lu Siyi nodded, "My friend lost the key."
Seeing the half-full wine glass being pushed over, Wang Shaojing understood it, and immediately reached out to search in the storage box, grabbed a bunch of them at random, and said to Lu Siyi, "See if it's this bunch of keys?"
Every time Chi Xueyan was annoyed by strangers who came up to chat and wanted to do it directly, she would give him this signal.
Lu Siyi's attention then shifted: "No, there are only two keys hanging."
"Two... oh, I see, it's this string."
With the sound of metal colliding, Lu Siyi leaned over and wrote down the name of the item and contact information on the register.
After he put down his pen, he asked Wang Shaojing: "Does the event of that night often take place here?"
"Will there be a viewing meeting for "Scalpel"?" Wang Shaojing said with a smile, "It will be held every year on the anniversary of the movie's release, on the anniversary of the classic death scenes in the film, and when I really want to revisit it."
Lu Siyi said concisely: "Where can I see the event notification?"
"My circle of friends." Wang Shaojing quickly took out his mobile phone and asked him to add friends, and joked, "I have a little impression of you, and I thought you were not interested in this movie."
Lu Siyi didn't deny it, and said frankly: "That kind of atmosphere helps to open up the mind."
After finishing his work, he politely said goodbye to the new bar owner and Chi Xueyan, took the keys and turned to leave.
After he left, Wang Shaojing shook his phone at Chi Xueyan, and said with emotion: "Looking at his circle of friends, he should be a graduate student. Everyone can still think about this when they are crazy, which is awesome."
"You seemed to be very interested in him that day, and I thought to myself, so you like this type." Wang Shaojing asked curiously, "Why did you get annoyed after saying a few words today? Your taste changed so quickly?"
With his movements, the friend's profile page on the screen glows brightly, and everything about Lu Siyi seems to be close at hand, shaking dangerously.
Chi Xueyan looked away almost instantly, and said in a low voice, "Maybe."
He suddenly remembered that in the hotpot restaurant full of people, He Qiao seriously told him the details of the story used as evidence, the memory related to the fifth birthday and love.
And last night when I was walking hand in hand with He Qiao, the occasional cicadas chirped in the lonely bushes.
The undoubted reality and the illusory and indistinguishable future are suddenly intertwined and merged into a bottomless sea.
Chi Xueyan just sat quietly like this, never finished drinking the glass of Broken Love Special, until the crystal glass was stained with the brilliant night outside the window.
The bar gradually became lively, and he got up and left silently.
Standing under the same neon sign, Chi Xueyan made the call for the second time.
The other party connected quickly.
He Qiao's voice floated into his ears clearly, still with a gentle breath: "Xiaochi?"
At this moment, an inexplicable emotion surged in Chi Xueyan's heart. He clutched the phone tightly and asked straightforwardly: "The second time I saw Lu Siyi in the book, where was it?"
The other end of the phone was suddenly quiet for a while, as if thinking, the voice rang again became more cautious: "A bar."
a bar.
Chi Xueyan's fingers were about to loosen, he pressed the smooth body with all his strength, and said word by word: "You have to tell me what happened next, I want to know all the details of the story."
Before He Qiao opened his mouth, he continued: "I saw Lu Siyi again, at the bar, by chance."
He put the word "encounter" very lightly.
In the room with warm yellow lights, He Qiao was sitting in front of the computer answering the phone, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes.
He stopped asking, and said in a calm tone, "Okay, let's meet later?"
There was faint tiredness in Chi Xueyan's voice: "It's too late, tomorrow."
He Qiao understood his confused mood at this moment, and after agreeing to meet tomorrow night, the receiver fell into a long silence.
Just when he thought that Chi Xueyan had forgotten to hang up the phone, he suddenly heard the other party say again: "You said that I went bankrupt, betrayed my relatives, and died, and I was working in the company at home at that time."
"…right."
"What about my parents?" These two questions sounded very calm, "Are they also implicated by me?"
He Qiao didn't really want to answer this question, so after a moment of silence, he still said truthfully, "Yes."
So Chi Xueyan stopped asking.
He chuckled lightly, with strong sarcasm, and then said goodbye to his lover in the usual tone: "Good night."
"Good night."
He Qiao quietly watched the screen of the phone that ended the call turn from bright to dark.
Then he turned his eyes back to the computer screen flashing complex numbers and trend charts.
He Xiao went on a business trip today, so he didn't have to force himself to spend time in the game room.
At the same time, in the underground parking lot of the majestic commercial building, the driver opened the car door, and He Huaili, who had just got off work, got into the commercial car and rubbed the space between his brows wearily.
The driver drove to He's house. After closing his eyes for a short while to rest, He Huaili calmly opened the folder at hand.
The first thing that catches the eye is the photo of the red-haired youth.
He Huaili did not find any private detectives, but simply collected some basic information about Chi Xueyan that was not considered secret.
Family members, hobbies, schools attended, career history...
When he saw the young man's dazzling red hair and various hobbies, He Huaili's expression did not change. Only when his eyes fell on his university major did he fluctuate a little.
On the next line, he stared at Chi Xueyan's current occupation, and finally showed some surprise.
After a while, He Huaili asked the driver in front: "Old Ma, I remember when you stopped by to pick up your granddaughter last time, you said she had bad teeth?"
"Yeah, she loves sweets and has tooth decay. She's also very timid and cries whenever she sees a doctor." The driver sighed, "He brought a mirror to look at her teeth, and she immediately cried heartbreakingly. It’s been going on for almost a month.”
He Huaili listened patiently, and thoughtfully said: "The dental problem cannot be delayed."
"That's right, if you reason with her but don't listen, you really have nothing to do with your little ancestor..."
The car drove forward steadily, and in the night with few lights and shadows, He Huaili slowly closed the folder.
Monday morning.
Chi Xueyan walked into the clinic on time and greeted the familiar staff as usual.
When he raised his hand to check in, under the warm morning sun, a dazzling light flashed between his fingers.
The girl at the front desk snorted, stared curiously at his back as he walked towards the consulting room, and pushed the colleague beside him: "Did you see it? Or did I get it wrong? Is Dr. Chi's ring finger..."
After putting on a clean white coat, Chi Xueyan took off the ring on her ring finger, put it gently in a small tray on the desk, and was ready to start working.
The ring is a simple but good looking style.
He Qiao's aesthetics are good, he thought.
Too bad I can't wear it at work.
A busy day officially begins, receiving appointment patients, helping obedient or fussy children to see their teeth...
In the afternoon, he opened the clinic ahead of time, and the first patient he received was a tearful little girl, led by her grandfather.
She was not on the appointment list confirmed last Friday, and she was added temporarily because of the severe tooth decay.
This is a common occurrence, and Chi Xueyan didn't pay much attention to it.
The parents walked into the consulting room and waited quietly aside. The little girl sat on the dental chair reluctantly, trembling slightly, with tears in her big eyes.
Chi Xueyan was obviously still two meters away from her, so she couldn't help laughing when she saw this: "Do you have a toothache, or are you afraid of me?"
The little girl cried: "All of them..."
Seeing that she was too resistant to seeing her teeth, Chi Xueyan calmly grabbed a few candies from the small tray on the table, and the wedding ring in the candy pile shone with a lustrous silver light.
"Do you want to eat candy?"
The little girl was taken aback for a moment, subconsciously wanted to reach out her hand, but then timidly retracted it.
"You like candy, right?" Chi Xueyan chatted with her, "Then does your father like candy?"
The little girl retorted while sobbing: "Adults don't eat sugar."
"No." Chi Xueyan's tone was firm, "My father just likes candy, and he also likes many other sweets."
Now, the little girl shed tears a little slower, and asked in a low voice, "Then will his teeth hurt?"
"Well, adults and children are equally afraid of sugar." Chi Xueyan shook the phone at her, "Do you want to see the photo of my dad when he had a toothache?"
The little girl widened her eyes and looked over curiously.
Chi Xueyan sat down on the edge of the dental chair logically, and really opened the phone photo album.
The photo is a little fuzzy, like it was taken by a child, and the image quality seems to be from a long time ago. Ike Nakahara is much younger than now, holding his cheeks, his face is wrinkled, and his frail demeanor does not match his strong muscles.
"He's crying too." The little girl laughed through her tears and said without thinking, "It's just that crying is a bit scary."
Chi Xueyan also smiled: "Do you want to know the difference between the cavities of adults and children?"
The little girl nodded, staring at his mobile phone screen, suddenly understood something, and suddenly realized: "Your father cried because of his toothache, so you became a doctor?"
"You guessed it." Chi Xueyan rubbed her head and asked softly, "Let me help you see your teeth, okay?"
The little girl who forgot to cry finally lay down on the dental chair, and saw the painted ceiling and the gorgeous red hair of the doctor beside her.
"Your hair color is amazing."
"It's the same as in the cartoon, isn't it?" The dentist's voice was very gentle, "Do you want to listen to fairy tales? But you must keep quiet when you listen, and you can't talk casually..."
In the slowly floating dreamland, the mermaid swimming in the deep sea helps a child in the world wipe out a tooth decay.
Watching the crying child being taken away by his grandfather, Chi Xueyan breathed a sigh of relief.
He vaguely felt as if he had overlooked something.
But the busy second half of the day kept covering up.
When the hour hand pointed to 5:30 in the evening, Chi Xueyan put on the ring again after cleaning up.
He stared at the cold ring for a while, said goodbye to the assistant who was in a hurry to go home, and then turned on the phone.
The screen interface still stays on Ike Nakahara's toothache photo.
Chi Xueyan looked at this photo, a faint smile flashed in his eyes.
Then he opened the chat interface, found the dialog box with He Qiao, and sent a message: I want to hold a wedding as soon as possible.
Chi Xueyan's note to He Qiao is still Xiao Shiyi who made it casually, but the relationship between the two has undergone earth-shaking changes.
He Qiao was his eleventh and last blind date.
He received a reply quickly.
[Little Eleven: I'll call you. ]
The phone vibrated immediately.
"I was just about to tell you this." He Qiao's voice rang in his ears, "My dad went to see you today."
Chi Xueyan was stunned for a moment, and then realized what he had ignored before.
The grandfather of the crying little girl had a familiar face, but he had no time to look carefully at that time, and was busy coaxing the child.
Chi Xueyan came back to his senses, and joked, "How's the result of the inspection?"
He Qiao replied, "He asked me when I would like to hold the wedding."
Chi Xueyan tried to translate: "So I passed the level?"
"He said he wouldn't interfere with my choice." Having said that, He Qiao paused before saying, "Are you... a children's dentist?"
The puzzle left by the first meeting finally has an answer.
Chi Xueyan could hear the undisguised surprise in his tone, and asked back, "Isn't it?"
He Qiao's reaction was honest: "Can doctors dye their hair?"
"No." There was a sly secret in his answer, "but I am a special exception."
Imagining the expression of the person on the other end of the phone at the moment, Chi Xueyan couldn't help laughing, and said teasingly: "Don't worry, I won't date you on the dental chair."
After a short period of silence, He Qiao's voice rang again with a smile, "We should really be dating now, discussing the wedding date, and there are things we didn't finish talking about yesterday."
People in the love period are always tired of being together every day, and they need to spare no effort to show this state to others.
"Yeah." Chi Xueyan sat back at the desk and typed and searched in the computer browser, "What are you going to do in the name of a date? Watch a movie?"
"Which movie?" He Qiao asked along, "Is there anything you want to see?"
Chi Xueyan looked at the theater release information displayed on the screen, and read the title of the film accordingly: "The Thief of the Wind and Cloud, Let Go to Love, Story of Laughter..."
After appreciating the pile of titles with a bad movie vibe, he immediately gave up this activity and simply turned off the computer: "Forget it, let's just make appointments for dinner."
"It doesn't sound as good as a dental chair." He Qiao also joked, "I'll come pick you up now, and I'll be there in about a quarter of an hour."
Chi Xueyan got up and walked to the window, and said in response, "Okay, let's talk when we meet."
The road below is densely packed with traffic, and the exterior wall of the brand-new building opposite is hung with eye-catching rental advertisements. There are flickering lights everywhere, orange and red spots flickering on and off, and the hazy daylight quietly brews the smell of night.
Before hanging up the phone, He Qiao said goodbye to him in a natural tone.
"See you later, Koike."