Marriage First, True Love Later-Chapter 16

After they went downstairs, Lin Li could not find Anran’s car anywhere. She could not help but turn to look at her. “Where is your car? Was it hit by another vehicle or stolen?”

Anran rolled her eyes. She should have known that Lin Li’s mouth was incapable of producing pleasant words. “I parked my car at the office. I did not drive home. Let us call a cab to send us there. It should be quite convenient for us to use a cab.”

Lin Li nodded. Her eyes glinted as she came up with an idea. She suddenly said, “Ah, I’ll tell you what. You drive me there with Cheng Xiang’s car. After we are done with our meal, you can drive me back here right away.”

The corner of Anran’s mouth twitched as she thought, “This girl is really ordering me around, as f I am really her personal chauffeur!” However, since she was here today to apologize and make it up to her, she would not be so stupid as to respond to this important friend with rude words. She needed to be on her best behavior, so she smiled. “Your Royal Highness, please consider that your husband’s mistress is a luxury car. Since I am such a clumsy person, I am afraid that I might leave a scratch or a dent on his car when I drive. It is an extremely bad decision to pair his car and me together.”

Lin Li stared at her in a pensive manner. After a while, she finally nodded. “You’re right. You can be quite a klutz.”

Peeved by Lin Li’s remark, Anran whacked her. She laughed in exasperation. “I gave you an inch and you took a mile. You really have no qualms about offending me at all.”

“Hey, hey, hey! Please mind your manners.” Lin Li said with a straight face. Her expression made Anran burst out in laughter immediately. When Lin Li saw her laughing, she could not contain herself any longer. In the end, both of them were in stitches at a walkway beside the avenue.

After they flagged down a cab, Anran gave the cab driver directions to their destination. Halfway through the journey, her difficult friend voiced her desire to eat steamed little yellow croaker at Youran Cuisine. With the intention to make amends with Lin Li today, and the knowledge that pregnant women were more prone to mood swings in her mind, Anran requested the cab driver to change his route without any hesitation and double back to Youran Cuisine.

When they entered the restaurant, Anran did not ask for a private dining room. She decided on a table that was near a window in the main dining area. After Anran and Lin Li seated themselves, a waitress handed a menu to her with a smile. Anran asked Lin Li to order for both of them. After Lin Li took a look at the menu, the corner of her lips curved slightly. She shot Anran a slightly mischievous gaze.

After the waitress poured a glass of water for her, Anran held the glass to her lips and drank from it. She had a sinking feeling in her heart when she saw Lin Li’s face. She even started to grieve for her almost-empty wallet. While Anran was silently mourning the impending loss of her money, her peripheral vision darkened slightly. A figure walked up to Anran and Lin Li. Before Anran could raise her head to look at him, she heard him speaking. “Mrs. Su, it is a pleasure to meet you here today.”

“Pfff!” Anran choked on her water and coughed. His greeting had caught her off guard. The water that she drank earlier did not enter her oral cavity. Instead, it went into her nasal passage directly. Because of this, Anran’s face was completely red. She could not stop coughing.

“An Zi?” Lin Li was startled. She hurriedly took a napkin and handed it over to Anran. After that, she stood up quickly and went to the other side of the table. As she patted Anran’s back, she said, “Are you okay?! How did you manage to choke by just drinking water?!”

Anran continued coughing. Since some of the water had entered Anran’s nasal passage, and some of the water was still stuck in her throat, she felt an unusual amount of discomfort.

“Mrs. Su, are y-you all right?” Manager Zhang, who was standing at the side, gave Anran a slightly apologetic look. Earlier, he was assigning work to the staff at the main dining area when he saw them walking into the restaurant. Yesterday, when Mr. Su requested to dine in Whisper Of Flowers, he phoned Chairperson Su to ask for her permission. Chairperson Su told him that Mr. Su was her older brother and instructed him to provide Mr. Su and his wife with an exceptional dining experience. This was why, when Anran was back for another meal today, he wanted to approach her to greet her personally. He never thought that he would make Anran choke with his rash decision.

When Anran heard him addressing her as “Mrs. Su”, her cough worsened.

Upon seeing this, Lin Li turned to glare at Manager Zhang. Annoyed, she said, “Did you mistake her for someone else? She is not Mrs. Su. Why would you call her Mrs. Su?”

“Uh.” Manager Zhang, who was in charge of the restaurant, was taken aback. He was quite confused, so he pointed at Anran and said in bewilderment, “Isn’t she Mrs. Su?”

“She is…” Lin Li was about to say something when something suddenly occurred to her. She turned to Anran immediately and asked, “Did you marry a man with the surname Su?”

Anran finally managed to breathe properly and stop coughing. However, her face remained completely flushed. She nodded at Lin Li.

“Mrs. Su, are you sure you’re all right? Do you need help?” Manager Zhang asked in concern.

Anran nodded and waved him away. She replied to him with some difficulty, “I-I’m fine.”

After Anran assured him, Manager Zhang nodded. Before he walked away, he did not forget to tell them, “Mrs. Su, if you need anything, please feel free to ask for me.”

Lin Li waited for Manager Zhang to leave and Anran’s coughing to finally stop with her breathing back to normal before she turned around to return to her own seat. She sat down and picked up the menu. She gazed at Anran thoughtfully without saying anything at all.

Lin Li’s stare made Anran’s skin crawl. “If you-you want to say something to me, please tell me directly. If you have any questions for me, please ask me directly as well. Don’t look at me like this. I feel uneasy.”

After a long while, Lin Li finally asked, “An Zi, what kind of person is your husband? By the look of things, he seemed like someone who is rich and powerful!”

Anran shook her head. “I don’t know.” She really did not know much about him. Yesterday night, she actually wanted to discuss things with him. Afterward, she did not manage to talk to him because her mother suddenly felt unwell. He told her that he would need to go on a business trip today, so if she wanted to have a serious conversation with him, she needed to wait for the next day.

Lin Li placed the menu down at once and straightened her back, before chiding Anran solemnly, “You are such a daring person. You only met him once before you went to the civil affairs bureau to register your marriage with him. You have been very irresponsible with yourself.”

“Actually, it’s all the same. I go on blind dates to get married. Since we were a good match, we decided to marry each other. I am starting to feel sceptical about blind dates. If I continue to attend these blind dates, perhaps I might meet another Lin Anjie,” Anran said.

“But you are being too impulsive with your decision. At the very least, both sides should get to know each other first. Let’s say you are in a rush, you should marry him after dating for a month. Even if you got married in a week, I would not say anything to that. I cannot believe that you didn’t even wait for a day. Within two hours of meeting him, you married him. Are you not afraid of meeting a criminal or someone with bad intentions?!” Lin Li was rather cross with Anran. She was angry that Anran treated herself so carelessly.

Instead of refuting Lin Li, Anran only gave her a smile. Now that she gave some thought to it, she was really reckless.

Lin Li eyed her in a disgruntled manner. She drank a mouthful of water before she sighed. When she looked at Anran again, her eyes carried her guilt and self-blame. “An Zi, did you marry him because I told you about Mo Fei the other day?”

“No,” Anran denied. She took a sip of water. “I met him after that. He came to see me.”

“F*ck, he still had the nerve to meet you!” Lin Li was slightly worked up over it.

“After I had a conversation with him that day, I had a realization.” Anran said, “Even if he had not left the country six years ago, even if I had convinced him to stay, I would not have been able to make him stay with me for the rest of our lives. He was too ambitious. At that time, I could not give him what he wanted. Now that six years have passed, I am still incapable of giving him what he wanted.”

2

“Hmph, I have zero respect for a materialistic man like him,” Lin Li said furiously. She was there for Anran when Anran was dealing with her painful heartbreak, so she knew how hurt and sad Anran was at that time. She was bitter on Anran’s behalf.

Anran smiled faintly. She opened the menu and pushed it toward Lin Li, “Go ahead and order. Didn’t you plan to bleed my wallet dry? Or did you suddenly change your mind and decide to have mercy on me, so you would like to go home instead?”

“In your dreams! I did not eat breakfast in the morning so that I could bleed your wallet dry for my lunch,” Lin Li replied to her fiercely. Without even looking at the menu carefully, she waved the waitress over to place her order.