Her voice was too soft.
Zhou Cheng only caught the word “ensnared,” and when he tried to ask her to repeat it, Xia Xiaolan refused.
Zhou Cheng had no choice but to keep his arm around her shoulders. His wife-to-be was especially clingy during this meeting, and Zhou Cheng wished she would be even more so.
He was afraid to hold her hand for fear of hurting her arm, afraid to kiss her for fear of touching her facial injuries.
In his frustration, Zhou Cheng could only nuzzle her neck for comfort. Xia Xiaolan felt ticklish and tried to dodge and laugh, but Zhou Cheng’s hands were like vises, firmly holding her so she couldn’t escape.
“Say it again, what you just said. Say it and I’ll let you go.”
“…No, Zhou Cheng, stop it, this is a hospital!”
Xia Xiaolan’s protest lacked conviction.
What did it matter if it was a hospital? There were only two people in the ward, and anyone coming in would know to knock.
Xia Xiaolan just wanted to cherish their time together. She didn’t want to ask how long Zhou Cheng’s leave was; she wanted to be selfish for once. When she hadn’t been so emotionally invested, she thought meeting or not meeting didn’t matter, even encouraging Zhou Cheng to focus on his career while young.
But once that window paper was pierced, emotions couldn’t be contained – even building a great dam couldn’t prevent the flood.
“If I hadn’t promised Grandmother Yu, I really wouldn’t want to go be an exchange student.”
Zhou Cheng stroked her hair, “I know, I understand everything.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to just stay together like this?
As long as he wore this uniform, Zhou Cheng had to obey orders; he had his duties.
Zhou Cheng loved his current job, otherwise he wouldn’t have quit school in his teens. Born into the Zhou family, he had other options… He could have taken the safe path, but he had carefully weighed his choices before choosing his current path.
After meeting Xia Xiaolan, he truly felt the urge to change jobs. But he was doing well in his unit, and Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t let him waste his prospects, nor would his family agree.
Zhou Cheng felt he wouldn’t starve doing something else, but others thought it would be too wasteful to give up halfway.
He could forcefully change jobs if he wanted – following Xiaolan wherever she went, staying abroad for however many years she wanted, moving south if she didn’t like the north. Such a sweet life that would be.
But what about the Zhou family?
The old master hadn’t said the Zhou family needed to maintain power for thousands of years, but it was through the struggles of Grandfather Zhou and the brothers Zhou Wengang and Zhou Guobin that the Zhou family achieved their current status. Climbing up had been extremely difficult, but falling would be all too easy!
Zhou Yi was unreliable, and after Zhou Cheng’s two aunts married off, could their cousins who didn’t bear the Zhou surname still look after the extended family? Everyone had their own lives.
Before Zhou Cheng started working, several families in their compound, including the Wang family, had fallen from grace.
Once a family’s pillar collapsed, the others became panic-stricken and helpless. Zhou Cheng didn’t want that day to come for the Zhou family. His grandparents had struggled their whole lives and deserved to enjoy some peaceful years. His uncle and father could work for another decade or two, but after that, he would have to shoulder the family’s burden.
So Zhou Cheng understood all of Xia Xiaolan’s thoughts.
He had fallen in love with her at first sight, and understanding had turned that like into love.
He understood everything – understood her unwillingness to compromise with fate, understood her determination, knew her resolve to help her family escape their difficult circumstances.
“Xiaolan, we should try our best to fulfill promises we’ve made to others. Like you said, we still have a long time ahead of us… but Grandmother Yu is getting older, she might not have many years left. You’ve given her hope of finding her relatives. Whether you find them or not is one thing, but whether you’ve taken the chance to look is another.”
Would his wife-to-be be led astray by someone while abroad?
He would worry about this even if she stayed in China – it had nothing to do with going abroad. Who told his Xiaolan to be both excellent and beautiful?
Yes, excellent came before beautiful. Xiaolan had just said she was “ensnared” – Zhou Cheng had heard it, but he didn’t feel he had truly ensnared her. Even marrying her wouldn’t count. Life never stops, and the struggle never ends – until the day they lay in the same grave, there would never truly be any “ensnaring.”
If he didn’t treat his wife well and someone else took advantage, he would have only himself to blame.
Zhou Cheng was grateful to Grandmother Yu. When Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen had just left the countryside, they needed a landlady like Grandmother Yu, tough on the outside but soft-hearted inside. With Xiaolan’s alluring looks, staying at Grandmother Yu’s place was the safest option.
Besides, Xiaolan had mentioned that Grandmother Yu had even rushed to Beijing last time, worried that Xia Xiaolan and Liu Fen might be taken advantage of by the Ji family.
Zhou Cheng felt that relationships between people were reciprocal. Xia Xiaolan’s ancestral ties were thin – her maternal grandmother had died early, and while her paternal grandmother was alive, she was like an enemy. Perhaps Grandmother Yu, as their landlady, showing such genuine care for the mother and daughter was heaven’s compensation to Xia Xiaolan.
Zhou Cheng wasn’t some moral saint; he hadn’t been one to follow rules since childhood. But Zhou Cheng valued promises.
He would try his best to fulfill promises made to others, and he understood Xia Xiaolan – they were similar in some ways. If Xiaolan didn’t wholeheartedly help Grandmother Yu search, she would feel guilty herself!
There was no point regretting a promise made. Being an exchange student abroad was many people’s dream.
It was a reward for competition winners – why shouldn’t his wife-to-be go?
Now Zhou Cheng wanted Xia Xiaolan to let go of her mental burden. Glory earned through ability should be properly enjoyed. Having decided to become an exchange student, she should go happily.
After their intimate moment, Xia Xiaolan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She had worried Zhou Cheng would be unhappy about her going abroad, but now he was the one urging her to be an exchange student.
Their tender moment was only interrupted by a knock at the door.
It was Guan Hui’e, asking them to come out for dinner.
Kang Lianming had suggested it – to thank Mayor Tang for his help, everyone would have dinner together. Kang Wei had caregivers watching him, along with Kang Lianming’s secretary, so Kang Lianming invited everyone along.
“It’s nothing, just a meal.”
Zhou Cheng reassured Xia Xiaolan. Whatever thoughts Second Uncle Kang had, he wouldn’t bring them up in front of so many people, so it really was just a thank-you dinner.
It seemed Kang Wei’s condition was truly stable, otherwise Kang Lianming wouldn’t be in such a mood.
Although Xie Yun was reluctant to leave the ward – she was Kang Wei’s mother after all – she couldn’t be absent from such an occasion. As the large group walked down the corridor, they ran right into Du Zhaohui – he was in a wheelchair with several people following him, apparently just having finished a brain examination, looking quite weak.
Being kicked by Bai Zhenzhu made Du Zhaohui furious.
Kang Lianming’s words in the ward had also angered him, but anger couldn’t solve problems. He had ordered people to bring Xia Dajun from Hong Kong and was investigating Kang Lianming’s background himself.
Du Zhaohui was someone who knew when to yield. Offending a director from the Education Department didn’t matter, but having Mayor Tang disapprove of him wasn’t good.
He needed to develop strongly in Pengcheng to overshadow other members of the Du family. If Tang Hongen didn’t support him, it would be quite troublesome.
This “chance encounter” was of course deliberately arranged by Du Zhaohui. However, when Young Master Du saw Zhou Cheng with his arm around Xia Xiaolan’s shoulders, his prepared script caught in his throat!
He had thought the one in the car accident was Xia Xiaolan’s boyfriend – why else would she have been so persistent and unyielding?