Chapter 38 038 He was kissing her tears.
In the tea room, Jiang Yuqing's eyes widened after hearing Meng Ran's description.
"Wow, this Miss Shang is such a self-centered person! How could she have the nerve to push you into the fire first, and then come to ask you for help, saying those kinds of things to you?"
Meng Ran twitched the corner of her mouth: "A spoiled young lady who has been pampered since childhood probably has a different way of thinking than ordinary people."
"So you didn't agree to her request, and she just let you go like that?" Jiang Yuqing pressed. "What if she's still not giving up and comes looking for you again? These rich and powerful, love-obsessed heiresses are the most difficult to deal with..."
Meng Ran: "I told her that if she appeared in front of me again, I wouldn't mind telling Zhao Yanzhou about her harassing me."
Jiang Yuqing blinked and nodded in agreement: "That makes sense. What she's most worried about is her embarrassing situation being discovered by her brother Yanzhou. With what you said, she probably won't dare to bother you anymore."
Meng Ran: "I hope so."
“But speaking of which…” Jiang Yuqing frowned, “No wonder you looked so haggard back then. I thought you were just heartbroken, but it turns out so much else happened.”
Meng Ran lowered her eyes: "I didn't expect this myself."
"So that's why!" Jiang Yuqing slammed her hand on the table. "I told you you're stubborn and always swallow your pride, but you wouldn't admit it! You were wronged so badly by Zhao Yanzhou and your parents back then, and you didn't even tell me a thing!"
Meng Ran smiled and said, "Didn't you say that you were so busy back then, working and taking care of your mother at the hospital, that you didn't have time to rest, and that all your money went to paying for her treatment? Let me tell you, it just meant one more person was worrying along with you."
Jiang Yuqing said anxiously, "How can you say that? At least you were kicked out by the landlord, I can take you in! My old house is a bit run-down, but it can comfortably accommodate one more person..."
As she spoke, Jiang Yuqing's eyes even reddened.
Meng Ran remained silent, then patted Jiang Yuqing on the shoulder: "It's all in the past."
Jiang Yuqing shook her head: "Sigh, it's my fault, you actually have to comfort me."
"Let's not talk about that anymore." Jiang Yuqing perked up. "It's getting late. Did you call your driver to pick you up?"
Meng Ran: Not yet.
Jiang Yuqing: "Then I'll give you a ride home on my way."
Meng Ran: "Sure."
Half an hour later, the car stopped in front of the villa.
Jiang Yuqing: "I will continue to manage our account in the next couple of days. Let me know if there is any progress on your end."
Meng Ran agreed: "Okay."
The two discussed their next steps during the day, and temporarily handed over the daily operation of the account to Jiang Yuqing, so that Meng Ran could have more time to complete all other tasks, big and small.
To truly realize small-batch online retail, there are a lot of things to be done step by step, from business licenses to material supply chains, which requires a lot of effort.
When they returned to the villa, Chen Miaoying had already been picked up from kindergarten by Aunt Zhang and rushed over to greet her mother.
"Mom! Anna absolutely loves her cat castle!" Chen Miaoying exclaimed. "I was just in the room playing with her on her new castle!"
"Today at kindergarten, I told Zhu Haoran that my mom built me a castle, but he didn't believe me! I just took a picture and sent it to him, and he finally believed me!"
"He also said he wanted to build a castle for his cat. Humph, he's dreaming! He's not nearly as capable as Mom!"
Chen Miaoying's face was full of pride.
Meng Ran squatted down: "My darling is amazing, designing such a beautiful castle. What if other uncles, aunts, and children see this castle and want to buy one for their cats? Mommy wants to make many of the cat castles you designed and sell them to other people who like them, is that okay?"
Chen Miaoying blinked: "Does Mom mean that I want to be a boss like Dad?"
Meng Ran smiled and said, "Yes."
She underestimated Chen Miaoying's business acumen; in fact, the young girl understood everything as soon as she spoke.
“Okay!” Chen Miaoying replied without hesitation. “Mom, be a boss just like Dad. When I grow up, I want to be an even better boss than Mom and Dad!”
Meng Ran was amused by her daughter: "Okay, then you have to eat well and grow up quickly."
Chen Miaoying: "Mmm!"
"Oh, right, Mom, I'll take you to see Anna. She absolutely loves lying on the top of the castle now!"
Chen Miaoying took Meng Ran to the pet room, and the mother and daughter played with the cats for a while.
Chen Sulin returned before dinner.
Meng Ran found the food rather unappetizing during dinner.
She had many questions she wanted to ask Chen Sulin, but with her daughter there, she couldn't bring herself to ask them.
This caused her to be absent-minded while eating, and even Chen Miaoying noticed that something was wrong with her mother.
"Mom, were you too tired from work today?"
Meng Ran smiled and said, "Yes, a little."
Chen Miaoying: "Mom, you should rest early today, otherwise you'll be exhausted."
Meng Ran: "Okay, Mom knows."
After dinner, Chen Miaoying was led by Aunt Zhang to the second floor for her class.
Chen Sulin: "What happened outside today?"
Meng Ran originally had something she wanted to ask him, but while she was hesitating about what to say, he beat her to it.
Meng Ran: "I... met someone."
Chen Sulin's eyes narrowed slightly.
Meng Ran: "Shall we go upstairs to talk?"
Chen Sulin: "Okay."
Entering the study, Meng Ran took a deep breath: "Today at the beauty salon, I ran into Shang Yue, and she told me some things from back then."
"The situation after my breakup with Zhao Yanzhou... wasn't as understated as you described, was it?"
Chen Sulin didn't speak, but his silence itself was the answer.
After getting started, continuing to write didn't seem as difficult as Meng Ran had imagined.
Meng Ran: "Shang Yue told me that I lost my job and was kicked out by my landlord when my parents came to cause trouble. You helped me."
She looked up at him, not wanting to miss his expression: "These...are all true, right?"
Chen Sulin: "Hmm."
Meng Ran's voice trembled slightly: "Then why didn't you tell me these things? When I asked you before... why did you describe things so casually?"
“Because I think,” Chen Sulin’s voice was calm, “you don’t need to know these details.”
Meng Ran stared wide-eyed, asking incredulously, "What do you mean I don't need to know?"
She felt completely unable to understand what was going on in this man's head.
Meng Ran: "These are the reasons we got married back then. Aren't these important things?"
Chen Sulin said slowly, "It's a fact that you chose to marry me out of gratitude and because you needed a backer, because I helped you."
"As for what you specifically went through, that's not something I need to tell you."
Meng Ran: "But—"
Chen Sulin interrupted her: "Meng Ran."
Meng Ran: "...What?"
Chen Sulin's voice was incredibly gentle: "What's the point of telling you all this, other than letting you relive the pain and embarrassment of that time?"
Meng Ran opened her lips, but no sound came out.
Is it useless?
Meng Ran felt as if she had been drawn into the man in front of her, her thoughts became chaotic, and she almost forgot what she wanted to ask.
"But..." she murmured, "If I had known you had helped me so much back then, pulled me back from the brink of disaster, I would definitely, definitely..."
Chen Sulin: "You'll be very grateful to me?"
The man spoke in a flat tone, with a barely perceptible curve at the corner of his lips, like a silent self-mockery.
Meng Ran looked at him, a vague thought flashing through her mind, but she couldn't quite grasp it.
She shook her head, forcing herself to calm down.
"You said you didn't want me to experience the pain of that time again, then..." Meng Ran asked, "then what about the time you kept looking for me after I disappeared?"
"Shang Yue said that in order to find me, you even went to her father and used your connections."
Upon hearing this, Chen Sulin scoffed, "That old bastard Shang Hongyuan is getting more and more unable to control his mouth as he gets older; he tells his daughter everything."
Meng Ran: "So it's true that you went to ask someone for help?"
Chen Sulin: "Yes."
Meng Ran persisted, asking, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Chen Sulin's gaze was calm: "I'll tell you, and then what?"
Meng Ran choked up: "Then I'll know...know how much you want to find me,know you—"
She bit her lip, her throat dry, and couldn't continue speaking for a moment.
For some reason, the tip of my nose suddenly started to feel sore.
Meng Ran suppressed the urge to cry: she had never been a crybaby, and even during the most painful times of her adolescence, she always gritted her teeth and endured it.
Besides, she had finally managed to find him to get everything cleared up, and she didn't want her inexplicable outburst of tears to ruin everything.
As I was thinking this, my vision suddenly went dark.
Chen Sulin raised his hand and gently stroked her brow bone with his fingertips.
Meng Ran stared at him blankly, letting the man's fingers slowly trace her eyebrows and eyes, almost forgetting to breathe.
Finally, Chen Sulin withdrew his hand.
"Meng Ran." Her name escaped his lips like a low sigh.
"What I want has never been your gratitude, or any kind of reciprocation."
Her heart skipped a beat, and as if under a spell, Meng Ran blurted out without thinking, "Then what do you want?"
Chen Sulin did not answer.
After a long eye contact, Chen Sulin's brows twitched slightly, and he asked in a low voice, "Why are you crying?"
Meng Ran: "What? I didn't..."
She subconsciously reached out to touch it, and her fingertips actually touched a slightly damp patch.
Even she didn't know why she was crying.
It reminded me of my helpless self back then—
She thought her perfect boyfriend, who always did everything for her, suddenly broke up with her.
Well-paid and promising jobs, and small but warm and clean places to live, have all been destroyed.
In the blink of an eye, the stable life she had worked so hard to achieve vanished, just like the tragedy that befell her when she was eight years old.
Or perhaps she was thinking about how Chen Sulin had searched for her and raised Chen Miaoying during the five years she was missing.
Meng Ran closed her eyes, trying hard to hold back her tears.
Suddenly, she felt a warmth on her cheek as the man cupped her cheeks with his hands.
Meng Ran's eyelashes trembled, and then a warm drop fell on her eye, making her freeze on the spot.
She realized that he was kissing her tears.
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