Chapter 407 Wherever You Are, There I Am
Mu Nanyan gently poured the soup warming on the stove into a white porcelain bowl, and the warm aroma quietly spread with the hot steam.
She held the bowl and walked lightly to the door of the study.
The door was ajar, and she quietly pushed it open a little. She saw Lu Yiran sitting behind the desk, wearing a pair of blue light blocking glasses on his nose. He frowned slightly as he stared at the computer screen, his slender fingers tapping the keyboard quickly, obviously still dealing with busy matters.
She didn't go in immediately, but just leaned against the door and looked at him quietly for a while with a gentle gaze.
Until he suddenly realized something and raised his head.
When he saw her, his furrowed brows relaxed instantly, his eyes lit up with warmth, and even his voice softened unconsciously:
"Aren't you sleeping yet? How long have you been standing here secretly staring at me?"
Mu Nanyan then walked in with a smile and gently placed the bowl of soup next to him, deliberately avoiding the pile of documents.
"I'm afraid someone will be so busy that they forget about time and then go through life on an empty stomach."
There was a soft complaint in her tone as she reached out and took off his glasses.
"Drink the soup first to warm your stomach before you get busy."
Lu Yiran cooperated by slightly tilting his head, and casually grasped her wrist, his fingertips unconsciously stroking her delicate skin, like a habitual intimacy.
"My wife still loves me."
He chuckled softly, picked up the bowl, blew on it, and took a big sip politely.
Mu Nanyan's ears were slightly hot, and she replied coquettishly:
"Who is your wife?"
"Why? Don't you want to marry me?"
Lu Yiran raised his eyebrows, put the bowl back on the table, and with a little force from his arms, he pulled her to sit on his lap and held her in his arms.
"It depends on your performance."
Mu Nanyan did not struggle to break free, but leaned on his chest with a smile on her lips.
"Am I not good enough?"
He lowered his head close to her ear, his voice low and warm breath brushed past her.
"It seems I'm not trying hard enough in bed..."
As he spoke, his hands began to get naughty.
Mu Nanyan quickly pressed it gently, her cheeks flushed:
"Stop messing around...I have something to tell you..."
Lu Yiran then stopped, still with a smile in his eyes, and looked at her intently:
"What's up?"
Mu Nanyan changed the subject and gently stroked his slightly furrowed brows with her fingertips:
"How long will you be busy?"
"A little while longer."
There was a hint of fatigue in his voice. He leaned his head against her shoulder, closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the light fragrance of her hair.
"Go to bed first, don't wait for me."
Feeling the weight of his body gradually relaxing, Mu Nanyan spoke softly:
"Just now...Shangguan Jiuze called."
Lu Yiran uttered a vague "hmm" from his throat, still with his eyes closed, but his arms held her tighter.
"He said his father has recovered well and has been discharged from the hospital... He wants me to go back to Haicheng to meet him and thank me properly."
Hearing this, Lu Yiran slowly opened his eyes and looked at her face:
"You promised?"
Mu Nanyan met his gaze and nodded gently:
"Well, I think...it's time to have a good talk with him."
"When do you plan to go back?"
His voice was low, with a barely perceptible hint of reluctance.
"Seeing how busy you've been lately, I can't really help you here, and it's only distracting you from taking care of me."
Her tone was gentle, and her fingertips unconsciously rolled up the collar of his shirt.
"I just want to go back in the next two days."
Lu Yiran was silent for a moment, then he held her tighter with his arms, gently rubbing his chin against the top of her head, his voice filled with cautious exploration:
"Then you have to come back early. The company's annual meeting will be in a few days... I want you to attend with me."
As he said this, his eyes never left her face, and a rare hint of nervousness rose in his heart.
He knew that Mu Nanyan never liked such noisy and formal occasions, but the grand annual meeting was extraordinary, gathering almost all the upper-class celebrities in the capital.
He had to be present, and what he hoped even more was to have her and Chenchen stand beside him and solemnly introduce their presence to everyone.
Mu Nanyan naturally understood the significance behind this annual meeting, and she also understood the deeper meaning behind his cautiousness at the moment.
Thinking of facing countless scrutinizing eyes in such an important occasion, she couldn't help but feel a little timid in her heart, and her fingertips curled slightly.
However, when she raised her eyes and met his deep and expectant eyes, that hesitation instantly turned into soft determination.
He had already taken ninety-nine steps for her, cutting through all obstacles and protecting her under his wings.
This final step should be taken by her taking the initiative to walk towards him.
A light but solemn smile slowly spread across the corners of her lips, and she replied softly:
"Okay, I'll go with you then."
Lu Yiran's heart seemed to skip a beat, and immense joy and emotion instantly surged through his body like a warm current.
He didn't say a word, but just looked deeply into her eyes. The next second, he lowered his head and grabbed the smile that made his heart tremble.
This kiss came suddenly but was extremely gentle, without any lust, only filled with indescribable cherishment, gratitude and incomparably deep love.
All the unfinished words and all the uneasy expectations melted into the intertwined breaths of each other.
They hugged and kissed for a long time, until Mu Nanyan gasped and softened in his arms, and he reluctantly stepped back.
Their foreheads touched, their breaths intertwined, and they saw their clear and complete reflections in each other's misty eyes, as well as the unspoken promise and future.
In the end, it was Mu Nanyan who broke the charming silence first. She tilted her head slightly and asked softly:
"This year...where are you planning to celebrate the New Year?"
Without thinking, Lu Yiran entangled her hair with his fingertips and blurted out:
"Wherever you are, there I am."
Mu Nanyan's ears felt hot, and she gently pushed him:
"How can this be possible... We're not even married yet, there's no reason for us to stay together during the New Year."
"I don't mind taking you to get the certificate tomorrow."
He looked down at her with a serious look, not a hint of joking.
Mu Nanyan was startled when she heard this, then shook her head and laughed:
“…I’m not going.”
It's not that she didn't want to marry him, but she suddenly remembered Gu Rushuang's previous eagerness to urge them to get married, and the vague uneasiness in her heart surfaced again.
She always felt that there was something hidden behind it, so she decided to... wait and see.
Lu Yiran was not annoyed, but hugged her tighter, resting his chin on the top of her head, and said in a low voice:
"Then I don't care. Now that you've slept with me, you have to be responsible for me. Wherever you are, I'll be there."
Mu Nanyan was so angry at his twisted logic that she laughed out loud:
"You speak as if I'm your only woman. Besides, as the CEO of Dingsheng Group, do you still need a woman like me to be responsible for you?"
As soon as these words came out, Lu Yiran's face suddenly darkened.
He stepped back slightly, holding her face with one hand, forcing her to look directly at him. His eyes were more serious than ever before, even with a hint of grievance at being misunderstood.
"You are my only woman."
Mu Nanyan was completely stunned, her pupils dilated slightly.
She's the only one? How is that possible...
She suddenly remembered the phone call that year, and Xu Nanxing's gentle voice seemed to still be in her ears:
"Brother Yiran is taking a shower..."
She looked at him uncertainly, her voice trembling:
"You and Xu Nanxing have been together for so long...don't you have..."
"When was I ever with her?"
Before she could finish, Lu Yiran interrupted her directly, frowning and speaking in a firm tone.
"She's just my assistant, that's all! There's nothing between her and me, nothing at all!"
Looking at his extremely serious and even somewhat angry expression, Mu Nanyan realized belatedly that she might have been completely deceived by Xu Nanxing back then.
Then, another old matter that had been accumulating for a long time came to mind.
She bit her lip and lowered her voice:
"Then... that night five years ago, after you saved me... why did you never come home again? I thought... it was because of you, Xu Nanxing..."
When this matter was mentioned, Lu Yiran's face instantly became even gloomier, and a trace of deep pain and concern flashed across his eyes.
He was silent for a moment before speaking in a hoarse voice, each word coming out as if squeezed from between his teeth:
"That night... you were in a daze, and you kept repeating... another man's name."
He looked at her deeply, his eyes filled with the resentment and bitterness that had accumulated for five years:
"You were clearly thinking of someone else at the time... What did you want me to do?"
Upon hearing this, Mu Nanyan suddenly raised her head, her face filled with disbelief and shock:
"How is this possible! That night... I knew it was you..."
Mu Nanyan's heart was completely confused.
She was calling someone else's name? How could that be possible? Who else could she be calling? Su Muyang? Why didn't she have any recollection of that?!
A strong sense of guilt came over me.
So, the source of Lu Yiran's sudden coldness and alienation was actually her...
At this moment, she really wanted to find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
On the other side, Lu Yiran, after the initial bitterness, keenly caught the deeper meaning of her words - she said "I knew it was him that night."
Does this mean that even in such a chaotic situation, the person she recognized in her heart was him, and the person she was willing to give herself to was... also him?
In an instant, the name she had unconsciously whispered that morning seemed no longer important.
It was enough for him to be sure of this.
He tightened his arms, hugged the person in his arms deeper, lowered his head and buried his face in the crook of her neck, his voice low and hoarse, with regret and fear that was hard to let go:
"If I had waited for you to wake up that morning and asked you in person... would we not have missed each other for so many years?"
Will he be able to witness Chenchen’s birth and growth with his own eyes?
Have they already become a happy family of three?
Maybe... they will have a daughter as lovely as her?
The more he thought about it, the more regret he felt, and he lamented the time that had been wasted.
Why was I so proud and stubborn back then?
Mu Nanyan also had mixed feelings in her heart, with waves of warm currents of sadness surging in her heart.
Yes, if she had let go of her anxieties and taken the initiative to find him to find out, perhaps she would not have wasted these five years.
They were both wrong after all...
She raised her hands and gently hugged him back, her voice soft but firm:
"Yiran, promise me that no matter what happens between us in the future, we must talk it out face to face and never let any misunderstanding separate us again."
"good."
He agreed immediately, with a firm and decisive tone, as if he were making the most important oath:
"From now on, I will tell you everything and never hide anything from you. There will be no more misunderstandings between us."
Mu Nanyan didn't want the atmosphere to continue to be immersed in the heaviness of the past, so she gently brought the topic back to the present:
"I'm telling you seriously, you have to go back to the old house to spend the New Year with your grandparents, right?"
"Well, I have to go back and have a reunion dinner with them."
Lu Yiran nodded, his knuckles unconsciously rubbing her sleeves.
"If you want to go back to Haicheng to be with your grandparents, I'll fly over to see you the next morning."
Mu Nanyan felt warm in her heart, but then she woke up.
In order to accompany her, Lu Yiran has been delayed in Haicheng for a long time, and even his official business in the capital has been delayed a lot.
If he was asked to leave his family and rush to Haicheng even for the New Year, even if Mr. and Mrs. Lu were more tolerant, they would inevitably feel resentful towards her.
She hoped that her relationship with Lu Yiran would be blessed by the Lu family.
Now Mr. Lu’s attitude is unclear, and Gu Rushuang’s transformation is sudden and strange. At present, only grandpa and grandma clearly support them.
She couldn't continue to act on her own will and make things difficult for him.
But seeing that Lu Yiran was acting as if it was a matter of course that he would go with her, it was obviously not feasible to persuade him to stay in the capital alone.
Mu Nanyan pondered for a moment, and finally spoke softly, offering a win-win proposal:
"How about... I'll go back to Haicheng to visit my grandparents first and stay with them for two days. After that, I'll bring Chenchen back and go back to the old house with you to visit grandpa and grandma."
She looked up at him with a gentle smile in her eyes:
"I promised grandpa and grandma that I would bring Chenchen back home, but I never found the right opportunity. It's a good opportunity to let Chenchen spend some time with my great-grandparents during the Chinese New Year. They will definitely be happy."
Lu Yiran was startled when he heard this, and his face instantly showed undisguised surprise. He even couldn't believe it:
"Are you serious? Are you really willing to go back to the old house with me to celebrate the New Year?"
Mu Nanyan nodded affirmatively:
"Yeah. Anyway, my work focus will be in Haicheng from now on, so I can go back to see my grandparents anytime I want. They're very understanding and won't mind this."
"Thank you...wife."
Lu Yiran's heart was burning, and he called out softly, his arms unconsciously tightening a little.
Mu Nanyan had given up trying to correct him for calling her "wife". She turned her face away with a slight flush in her ears, but did not refute.
Without waiting for her to say anything else, Lu Yiran continued:
"Then Chenchen and I will accompany you back to Haicheng tomorrow."
"You're so busy with work, you don't have to accompany us back. I can take Chenchen with me..."
"It's time for me to go see my grandparents. I haven't seen them for a long time and I miss them so much."
His tone was gentle but unforgiving.
"I have almost arranged the work. The rest can be handed over to Song Rui and the others."
"Can you really leave?"
"Yeah, don't worry."
Seeing that he had made up his mind, Mu Nanyan said no more.
She accidentally glanced at the clock on the wall and was shocked to realize that she had been chatting with him in the study for almost an hour.
She quickly stood up from his arms:
"Then hurry up and get back to work. I won't bother you anymore."
Although Lu Yiran was reluctant, he still let go of her hand, but his eyes were still glued to her:
"Okay, go and rest first."
Mu Nanyan picked up the empty soup bowl on the table:
"Would you like another bowl? I'll get another one."
Lu Yiran looked at her, a soft smile in his eyes:
"Thank you, wife."
Mu Nanyan's face was slightly hot. She deliberately didn't respond, turned around, picked up the bowl and walked out of the study quickly.
But the moment he turned around, the corners of his lips couldn't help but curl up slightly.
He is now calling her "wife" more and more easily.
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