Please confess to me [rebirth] 44

Chapter 44　　




***

It was almost 8:30 when Shen Xi finally came downstairs. Usually, Shen Xi would get up at 7:10, wash up, go for a run, then have breakfast at 8:00 a.m. The only time she would get up at 8:30 a.m. was if she was sick, or...ahem.

Mrs. Zhang gave her an ambiguous smile and Shen Xi wanted to smack a certain animal that kept her up all night.

"Good morning." When Su Hang saw his wife sit down on the table, he immediately greeted her.

Shen Xi smacked his outstretched hand away and crabbily replied: "Hurry and finish eating so you can go to work. Stop pawing at me."

"Nn." By now, Su Hang could be considered to have some experience with this. His wife generally had a bad mood the morning after a session of love-making. Su Hang figured he had been too much last night. Cough...he really tried hard to restrain himself, but Su Hang sadly acknowledged that his self-control seemed to be inadequate. Nevermind. By the time he gets off from work, his wife would've forgiven him.

Shen Xi started breakfast and drank some porridge. Truthfully, if it weren't for the fact that she wanted to eat breakfast with Su Hang, she would've stayed in bed. Su Hang stuttered through breakfast, then finally picked up his car keys to go to work. On weekdays, Shen Xi would usually walk him to the door and see him off, but today, she was in a bad mood and didn't want to send the animal off.

Su Hang stood across the dining table and silently looked at Shen Xi, waiting. It was hard to ignore such an obvious gaze.

"What?" Shen Xi had no words. "Do you have something to say?"

"I...I want a goodbye kiss." Su Hang asked, feeling hesitant and embarrassed.

"...." Shen Xi looked at the man feeling almost amused at his overly-cautious manner.

Su Hang thought that Shen Xi's silence mean that she didn't want to. Feeling wronged, he said: "You...you told me yesterday that you would do whatever I asked." 

Shen Xi put down the spoon she was holding, then hooked a finger towards the man.

Su Hang immediately shuffled to Shen Xi's side and considerably crouched down to place his face closer to her.

Shen Xi gave him a quick kiss and perfunctorily said: "Alright, go to work."

Su Hang straightened with a content expression on his face. However, just as he was about to leave the room, he heard Shen Xi mutter: "Just like a house-pet, ah."

Su Hang felt like he had to reply, so he turned back around. He bent down and placed his hands on Shen Xi's chair, trapping her between his arms. Without any warning, he bowed his head and kissed Shen Xi's red lips, robbing her of her breath. Seeing Shen Xi's stunned expression when he moved away, Su Hang resolutely tried to clear his name. "A pet wouldn't kiss you like that, nor would it make you unable to get up in the morning."

Shen Xi blinked, then blinked again. She couldn't believe that such sultry words came out of Su Hang's mouth.

"I'll come back for dinner after work." Su Hang kissed Shen Xi's forehead and before Shen Xi could snap out of her stupor, he turns away and leaves.

After some time, Shen Xi finally came back to her senses. She murmured to herself: "I feel like something's wrong with this, ah."

==
　　　
In the Su Company building.

Li QingYuan stepped out of the elevator into a familiar room. He approached the two beauties of the secretarial department and warmly greeted them: "Hello, beauties, did you miss me?"

"Lawyer Li, you haven't visited in a while." Lilith laughed.

"I guess there were too many beauties outside that he couldn't spare the time for us." Zhu Lin chimed from the side.

"What, no. It's because..."

"Lawyer Li, you've come. The Boss is looking for you." Just as Li QingYuan opened his mouth, Fang Yu came out of the CEO's office and saw him.

"Then I'll be going first." Li QingYuan said his goodbyes to the two beauties and went into the office.

Su Hang put down the document he was holding when he saw his good friend waltz in. In a cold voice, he said: "Close the door."

Li QingYuan raised a brow and turned to close the door. Then, in joking tone, he asked: "What's the matter? Having to close the door like this."

This morning, Su Hang suddenly called Li QingYuan and asked to meet up. Since Li QingYuan happened to be working in the area, he simply drove to Su Hang's company directly.

"Did you have a fight with Shen Xi again?" Li QingYuan asked.

"You crow beak." Su Hang threw a pen at him.

(T/N: crow's beak / fig. person who has made an inauspicious remark)

Li QingYuan quickly dodged the flying projectile and watched the innocent pen roll on the ground. Li QianYuan had a big grin on his face as he said: "Wow, I think your aim is improving, ah."

Su Hang didn't reply and simply stood up from his chair behind his desk to sit on the sofa. Li QingYuan followed him and directly poured himself some tea.

"I remember you mentioning once that you hung out with our alumni group. You told me that Qin Hai recently went on vacation?" Su Hang asked.

"Yeah." Li QingYuan nodded. "He played with some stock over the past few years, made a lot of money, but then suddenly announced that he would be taking a break to travel the world six months ago."

"Do you know where he is now?" Su Hang asked.

"Two days ago, he posted some pictures. I think he was watching penguins in Antarctica?" Li QingYuan was confused. "Why are you asking about him? You're not going to ask him for help, are you...?"

"No." Su Hang hesitated, then explained: "It's Shen Xi. She wants to expand the scale of her coffee shops."

"Oh, so it's for your wife." Li QingYuan asked again: "But isn't sister-in-law content with her two or three coffee shops? Why would she suddenly want to expand?"

"The charity her family manages doesn't have enough funding this year since the Shen company is still getting back on its feet. Shen Xi wanted to expand the scale of her coffee shops to try and make more money for the foundation." Su Hang explained. "I went through the data and think her coffee shops could be quite profitable, but Shen Xi doesn't know how to manage things in such a big scale."

"No matter how successful her coffee shops might get, isn't Qin Hai a little overqualified for this?" Li QingYuan asked.

"Isn't he on vacation?" Su Hang said. "And I remember that he was an orphan too. Since Shen Xi's coffee shop business is a charity-focused business that specializes in helping orphans, maybe he'll be interested. Maybe the Shen charity even helped him when he was young..."

"Don't explain it to me, ah. Tell Qin Hai yourself." Li QingYuan interrupted.

"...I haven't had any contact with him for a long time." Su Hang replied after a moment of quiet.

"And who's fault is that? After graduation, you practically disappeared into thin air. You didn't attend a single gathering afterward, and now, you're only decided to come out when you want to use someone." Li QingYuan took this opportunity to say: "On the 18th this month, everyone's getting together for a class reunion. I'll make sure that Qin Hai attends, and you can talk to him then. Don't say that I didn't help you, ah."

"Alright." Su Hang didn't think about it much and simply nodded.

"You know, this is the first time I've ever seen you so happy to hear about a reunion." Li QingYuan couldn't help but sound scornful. "Since you're finally attending a meeting after so long, be prepared to receive a torrent of abuse. The guys will be so excited to finally rag on you, ah. I'm going to message everyone."

Li QingYuan fished out his cellphone and began to send a message in the alumni group chat.

At this time, someone knocked on the office door. Fang Yu came in with a document just faxed in by a private detective.

Su Hang didn't care about Li QingYuan anymore and returned to his desk to receive the document from Fang Yu. However, as he read through the paper, he suddenly frowned.

"Miss Su's friend is a returnee named Chen Yu, 29 years old. He was an orphan who, at 8 years old, was adopted by a pair of intellectuals who were too old to conceive. When he was 16 years old, Chen Yu and his family immigrated to Country F, but eventually returned home to start a business 6 months ago. At present, he seems to be pursuing Miss Su." Fang Yu summarized.

Su Hang turned to the document's last page. It had a picture of Chen Yu when he was a child.

Su Hang thought the face looked vaguely familiar.

"When did Su MingLi go to him?" Su Hang asked.

"She left an hour ago." Fang Yu succinctly replied.

"Alright. You may go." Su Hang sent Fang Yu off, then took photos of Chen Yu's childhood picture with his phone. Then, he sent it to his old orphanage's dean.

Meanwhile, Li QingYuan received a message on his phone. He stood up and said to Su Hang: "I just remembered that I have an appointment with a client at 3:00 p.m. I'll be going."

"Nn." Su Hang indifferently replied.

"I'll settle the reunion details and tell you about it when we hash it out." Li QingYuan confirmed.

"Alright." Then, Su Hang looked up and told him: "I'll pay for the party and treat everyone."

"Alright." Li QingYuan replied with a smile. To be honest, everyone was pretty well off and didn't really need anyone to pay for them. But since Su Hang didn't attend any meetings for the past few years, Li QingYuan thought this would be a good way to reacquaint himself with everyone.

Later, as he was leaving work, Su Hang received a call from Dean Yao. When Dean Yao saw the photo Su Hang had sent her, she felt that it was somewhat familiar and went through the orphanage's old photo albums. Eventually, she found that Chen Yu was one of the children adopted from her orphanage 21 years ago. His old name was Xiao Liang.

Su Hang pondered about the conversation he had with Dean Yao the entire drive home.

"That year, that middle-aged couple visited and explained that they were both professors who wanted to adopt a child because they were unable to conceive. Maybe because they were intellectuals, they attached great importance to a learning ability when choosing a child. At the time, your grades were the best out of everyone, and Mr. and Mrs. Chen were actually considering to adopt you."

"Why don't I know of this?" Su Hang asked.

"You're all abandoned children, ah. I don't dare tell you children anything until things have been finalized. I was afraid that if I told you and things don't end up working out, you would feel like you were abandoned again."

"Then why did they adopt Xiao Liang?" Su Hang asked.

"It was fate." Dean Yao told him. "At the time, I had taken Mr. and Mrs. Chen to look for you, but when we went to your room, you weren't there. Instead, Xiao Liang was there. When he saw Mrs. Chen, Xiao Liang was reminded of his mother. So Xiao Liang approached Mrs. Chen and gave her the memento his previous mother had left him. Mrs. Chen was touched and felt that they were destined to adopt Xiao Liang, so they changed their mind and took him instead."

"His mother left him something? What was it?" 

"I don't remember. It's was a necklace or something." Dean Yao replied.

Su Hang didn't want to speculate on whether the 8-year-old Xiao Liang stole Shen Xi's bracelet, but the situation was too dramatic, ah.

'knock, knock!'

Su Hang was pulled out of thoughts at the sudden knock on his car window. He turned and realized that he was already home and that Shen Xi had come out to greet him. Su Hang opened the car door and got out of the vehicle.

"What happened? You were just sitting in your car, staring at nothing." Shen Xi frowned.

"I was just thinking about some things." Su Hang replied.

"Is it something important?" Shen Xi asked.

"No, it doesn't matter." Su Hang shook his head.

Yes, it didn't matter. Any negative thoughts or feelings that he had disappeared the moment he saw Shen Xi. If he had been the one adopted instead of Xiao Liang, he wouldn't have had to pick garbage, drop out of school, have fights with the local delinquents, or take care of his younger brothers and sisters in the orphanage. Maybe Su BaiNan wouldn't have been able to find him and thus wouldn't have saved him. He wouldn't have had to go abroad to study, nor would he have had to go back to the Su family. But then, he wouldn't have met Shen Xi.

"You're the most important." Su Hang wrapped his arms around Shen Xi. There were thousands of choices and numerous possibilities. But if even one of those possibilities meant not having Shen Xi in his life, Su Hang would refuse.

"What are you doing?" Having been suddenly hugged by the man, Shen Xi felt helpless. "Let's go inside first, ah."

"Let me hold you a little longer." Su Hang said in a muffled voice.

When Shen Xi came out of the house, she only had a shawl around her shoulders. Her waist was already beginning to feel cold. However, since she couldn't persuade Su Hang to go inside, she simply squeezed deeper into the man's arms. "Hold me tight then."

Su Hang obediently followed and hugged her tight. He clutched at his wife's body hard, as if afraid that someone would snatch her away.

***

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