Chapter 7 007 "See you tonight."
To be fair, Chen Sulin's face is extremely handsome.
If Meng Ran came across a handsome guy like that online, she would probably give him a thumbs up without hesitation, and might even follow him and share him with Jiang Yuqing.
But now, whenever Meng Ran sees that face, she feels as if she is facing a formidable enemy.
Even through the screen, the man's deep, dark eyes seemed to see through everything, piercing through all her pretenses.
And those two thin lips, with their cold curves, seemed poised to utter something that might make her heart clench at any moment.
In this way, this incredibly handsome face became repulsive in Meng Ran's mind.
Meng Ran silently pushed the tablet a few inches away.
Chen Sulin's steady voice came from the speaker: "After dropping Miaoying off at kindergarten, I go to the company to handle some work and will be home around dinner time. My personal number and my assistant's contact information are in the notes section of this tablet. You can contact me or my assistant if you need anything."
"The procedures related to your identity will be completed tomorrow. Until then, please rest well at home. If you encounter any problems, please ask the housekeeper for help."
As soon as the words were spoken, a grandmother's voice came from off-screen: "Dad, have you talked to Mom properly yet? We need to leave quickly, or you'll make me lose my little red flower today!"
Meng Ran, watching from outside the screen, couldn't help but laugh. In the world, the only person who would dare to urge Chen Sulin so much without worrying that he would get angry is probably little Chen Miaoying.
As expected, Chen Sulin showed no displeasure after being urged, and simply looked to the side and said gently, "Alright. Don't worry, Dad knows."
"Then Dad, quickly say goodbye to Mom!"
The man's eyes looked over again in the video, and Meng Ran's breath hitched for no apparent reason.
"See you tonight," Chen Sulin said.
...
After breakfast, Meng Ran's private doctor came and performed a basic physical examination.
After putting down the machine, the doctor asked, "Mrs. Chen, is there still no sign of your memory returning?"
When she first woke up in the hospital, Meng Ran was still trying to correct the way she was addressed, but now everyone in the villa calls her "Madam," and she's too lazy to argue anymore.
Meng Ran answered truthfully: "No."
Doctor: "Do you feel any discomfort in your body?"
Meng Ran: "No, not either."
The doctor nodded: "Yes. That's right, madam. All your current health indicators are normal, so there's no need to worry or be anxious."
Meng Ran: "Okay."
"Regarding the memory issue," the doctor said, "as I mentioned yesterday, your brain imaging didn't show any obvious abnormalities, so there's currently no good scientific solution. I suggest you maintain a regular diet and sleep schedule, avoid strenuous exercise as much as possible, and allow your brain and body to get sufficient rest."
"Alternatively, you could try to spend more time with people you used to know, or visit places you might have been during your amnesia period; that might help."
Meng Ran agreed to each request and thanked them.
After saying goodbye to the doctor, the housekeeper appeared before Meng Ran.
"Madam, the service center has restored your original phone number, but the circuitry of your old phone is completely damaged and it can no longer be used. The data inside is also unrecoverable."
"Also, this is your bank card. The gentleman asked me to give it to you. The number linked to it is your original mobile phone number."
Meng Ran nodded and accepted the SIM card and bank card from the housekeeper: "I understand, thank you."
The butler reported a few other matters to Meng Ran. Just as he was about to leave, Meng Ran stopped him and said, "Butler Yang, I have a question for you."
Butler: "Please speak, Madam."
Meng Ran: "I'd like to take a walk around the house. Is there anything I should be aware of?"
The butler didn't seem to fully understand: "You mean?"
Meng Ran: "I mean, are there any rooms in the house that I can't easily enter?"
She thought that if Chen Sulin had any taboos, she should try her best not to touch them.
The housekeeper understood: "Madam, you don't need to worry."
“The master specifically instructed me to do so.” The butler, who was nearly fifty years old, said respectfully, “This house is not only the home of the master and young lady, but also the home of you, madam. You are free to enter and leave every room in the house.”
...
After the housekeeper left, Meng Ran stared blankly out the window.
She couldn't help but imagine what Chen Sulin's expression and tone were when he said the words the housekeeper had just relayed.
In Meng Ran's more than 20 years of life, the concept of "home" only truly existed before she was eight years old.
At that time, she was still living in a bubble of happiness, naively believing that her parents were loving and inseparable, and that the house where she lived with her parents was her own little home.
In Meng Ran's childhood memories, her parents were indeed a harmonious couple. They would occasionally have a few harmless arguments, but most of the time the atmosphere at home was relaxed and pleasant.
When I was eight years old, my mother fell ill and passed away less than six months after her diagnosis.
Her father remarried two months after her mother's death, and the following year they had a son. From then on, Meng Ran became the most superfluous person in that house.
At first, she cried, made a scene, complained, and tried to please him.
It wasn't until later that she finally understood: from the moment her mother became critically ill, she had completely lost her home.
Based on the younger brother's birth date, it can be deduced that the father's new wife was already pregnant a month before the mother passed away.
After growing up, Meng Ran moved out of the old house with the help of student loans and went to study in Beicheng, thousands of miles away. She changed her surname to her mother's surname and cut off contact with her father's side.
However, neither the dormitory nor the room she shared with others after graduation could be considered "home".
Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, making Meng Ran squint and pull herself out of her reverie.
Can this villa really be considered her home?
Meng Ran desperately wanted to hypnotize herself into believing "yes".
After all, whatever Chen Sulin's original intention was in saying those words, he had already given her enough face, and she just needed to accept it.
Even her biological father, who raised her for eight years, could watch helplessly as she became homeless. How could she place her hopes on a man she didn't even know?
Meng Ran forced herself to detach herself from her emotions and think about what to do next.
As someone who had been missing for five years, her ID card was about to expire, and many of her accounts had been frozen.
The good news is that her identity was not revoked, nor was she legally recognized as dead.
Meng Ran checked the legal provisions and found that in cases like hers, after four years of disappearance, her spouse could apply to the court to declare her dead.
Logically speaking, Chen Sulin could have obtained a death certificate for her a year ago, and then naturally returned to being single. No one would have criticized him, either legally or morally.
After all, even her father, who remarried quickly, had countless relatives and friends defending him: it's not easy for a man to raise a daughter alone, and when fate comes, no one can stop it.
For some reason, Chen Sulin did not do so.
Therefore, Meng Ran only needs to wait for all the relevant procedures to be completed before getting a new ID card, and then she can resume her normal life.
After thinking for a moment, Meng Ran went upstairs to her room and took out her phone.
The card slot can hold two cards, just enough for her old number and the new number.
After inserting the card, Meng Ran first logged into WeChat.
She quickly flipped through her contacts, and they were pretty much the same as she remembered. Most of them were her former high school and college classmates, and none of the new contacts caught her attention.
Only the name "Chen Sulin" made Meng Ran's finger pause slightly. As expected, after clicking on it, the Moments feed was completely blank.
Meng Ran then opened her WeChat Moments.
She didn't have high hopes when she clicked in, and after seeing that she hadn't posted a single thing on her WeChat Moments since getting married, she sighed.
To be honest, she and Chen Sulin are quite a good match, especially considering that she doesn't like posting on social media.
This may be one of the few similarities between her and him.
Jiang Yuqing's WeChat Moments is quite extensive; she has posted a lot of updates over the past seven years, and I couldn't scroll to the bottom even after several attempts.
Meng Ran decided to choose an auspicious day to appreciate it more carefully, as a way to make up for the regret of not being able to spend these past few years with her friend.
After leaving Jiang Yuqing's WeChat Moments, Meng Ran hesitated for a moment before swiping the first letter of her friend list to "Z".
There are several classmates with the surname Zhao, but Zhao Yanzhou is not among them.
She searched for Zhao Yanzhou's phone number again, but found nothing.
Meng Ran let out a breath.
She rationally knew that Zhao Yanzhou had nothing to do with her anymore, and she had long ago made up her mind not to contact him.
But to say that I am completely uninterested in or unconcerned about Zhao Yanzhou's current situation would be to deceive myself.
Now that she has discovered that Zhao Yanzhou's contact information has been completely deleted by her past self, Meng Ran can't quite describe her feelings.
After gathering her thoughts, Meng Ran exited WeChat and downloaded a mobile banking app.
After logging into her bank account, the balance made her instinctively hold her breath.
Meng Ran's heart pounded, and she counted the number of digits again.
It really is the first seven digits before the decimal point.
She admitted that she had a narrow perspective; this amount of money might be a drop in the ocean for a wealthy family, but it was now undeniably in her personal account.
Since Chen Sulin had the housekeeper give her this card, can she assume that she can take the money in the card even if she gets divorced?
For the first time since realizing she had been here for seven years, Meng Ran genuinely felt that she didn't really want to go back as much.
It took Meng Ran several minutes to calm herself down before she carefully put the bank card away, almost reverently.
When I walked out of the bedroom, my steps were still a little unsteady.
Looking up in a daze, Meng Ran realized that she had unknowingly arrived at the door of the study.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she pushed open the door and went inside.
Since Chen Sulin has said she can freely enter and leave the house, why doesn't she go and take a look?
The study is well-lit, with sunlight streaming in through the windows, making the entire space exceptionally bright.
The room's decor and furniture are all in a classic style, elegant and calming, making it a perfect place for quiet reading.
On the windowsill, however, several succulents were thriving, their vibrant colors clashing with the rest of the room.
Meng Ran was stunned, a guess popped into her mind, but she dared not confirm it.
She stepped forward and gently picked up one of the pots.
Memories flooded back like a tide.
At twenty-two, she had just graduated. In the northern part of the city, where land was incredibly expensive, Meng Ran's salary was only enough to rent a small secondary bedroom near the subway station.
Even so, having her own room for the first time in over twenty years made her extremely excited.
On the afternoon she received the key, she couldn't wait to run to the flower market and buy several succulents. She used paint to draw patterns on the flowerpots and placed them on the narrow windowsill of her rented room.
At this very moment, the succulent she had brought back with such hope for the future appeared perfectly intact in Chen Sulin's study, as if it had traveled through eight long years.
A note from the author:
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66 little red envelopes [rose] There will be another update tonight.
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