Chapter 63: The Love-Brain Female Lead Awakens 6

The takeout was still hot and looked quite appetizing. Three dishes and a soup made for a lavish spread. However, given Sang Ruo’s current physical state, she could probably only eat enough to feel full by sight.

After they sat down, Yi Chen’an served her a bowl of soup first before picking up his own bowl to eat.

Sang Ruo took small sips of the soup, finding the flavor perfectly suited to her palate. She remarked with a sigh, “The takeout quality around here is really good. Compared to this, the food near the school is lacking, to say the least.” She tapped the packaging. “Even the containers are so different.”

The several boxes for this meal appeared to be made of stainless steel.

Yi Chen’an glanced at her and mentioned a name. Sang Ruo was instantly silenced.

It was a grand hotel that charged exorbitant service fees, let alone for delivery.

As a bachelor, Yi Chen’an’s takeout habits were a bit extravagant.

The phone sitting on the edge of the table lit up. The caller ID showed an unknown number. The buzzing vibration was particularly noticeable in the quiet dining room. Sang Ruo set it to silent and ignored it.

But it persisted, lighting up again and again, yet Sang Ruo still didn’t answer.

Yi Chen’an glanced toward her, though he said nothing.

Sang Ruo explained, “It’s a spam call.”

“Mhm.”

It was unclear whether he believed her.

After ringing a full ten times, the phone finally went quiet. Immediately afterward, a long text message popped up.

Sang Ruo opened it. The gist of the message was that the sender was Zhou Yan, and he was using someone else’s phone.

Sang Ruo had already blocked all of Zhou Yan’s contact information.

He asked where she was and why she wasn’t answering her phone. He added that he had been waiting downstairs at her dormitory for a long time and told her to call him back and return immediately after seeing the message.

Sang Ruo let out a cold laugh, thinking somewhat petulantly: she hadn’t answered so many calls, shouldn’t he first be concerned about whether she was safe?

Curling her lip, she thought for a moment and sent a text back to the number Zhou Yan was using: [I’ve already made everything clear. I’m not coming back to school today. If you want to wait, then wait.]

To prevent Zhou Yan from finding another person’s phone to call her – she was truly afraid of being bombarded with harassment – she simply turned the phone off.

As expected, there was a lot of food left over. Yi Chen’an packed it all into the refrigerator. Sang Ruo wanted to help – not that she actually wanted to do the work, but she felt she should be polite – but Yi Chen’an simply grabbed an apple from the fridge and pressed it into her hand.

“Your leg is injured. Just sit.”

Taking the easy way out, she happily held the apple and sat back down in the living room, pouting slightly where Yi Chen’an couldn’t see. She grumbled to herself, what did he mean, her leg was “inconvenient”? He made it sound like she was a cripple.

The apple was large and red. Sang Ruo instinctively picked up a fruit knife and began peeling it. By the time she was almost finished, she realized she had already stuffed herself with peaches, grapes, and takeout today; she couldn’t eat another bite.

Feeling stuck, she saw Yi Chen’an walk out of the kitchen. After symbolically cutting off a small piece for herself, she handed the rest to him.

Yi Chen’an hesitated for a moment before taking it and eating it quite naturally.

After dinner, it was truly time to leave.

June weather was as fickle as a child’s face¹.

On the way back to school, it started to rain. Large droplets hammered against the windshield with a rhythmic clatter.

The sky gradually darkened, and a thin mist rose over the city. Lights flickered on early in the windows of the buildings lining the streets, and cars turned on their headlights. Visibility dropped, and traffic began to congest.

With such heavy rain, Sang Ruo didn’t want to return to school for the time being, regardless of whether Zhou Yan was still waiting to intercept her. She was worried he might use the rain to play the martyr², putting her in a difficult position. Given his ruthless and patient character, it wasn’t impossible.

Frustratedly running a hand through her hair, she really didn’t want to face Zhou Yan again.

She rummaged through her bag and was relieved to find her ID card with her. At least she wouldn’t be left wandering the streets.

By the time they neared the school, an hour had passed. Their campus was in the old district, not far from the city center, which was always a peak area for traffic jams.

The heavy rain, mixed with the angry shouts of drivers and the lights through the mist, ushered in the city night.

Sang Ruo turned to look at the man beside her. She couldn’t find even a trace of irritability on his face – or perhaps his poker face was just that good.

Music played softly in the cabin. While waiting, his fingers tapped lightly to the beat. He seemed quite at ease despite the traffic.

Was Yi Chen’an really such a good-tempered person? He was a truly difficult man to read.

“Hmm?” Perhaps sensing her gaze, he turned his head.

“It’s nothing. I just feel like I’ve troubled you a lot today, and now I’m taking up so much more of your time,” Sang Ruo said politely.

She didn’t know which part of that sentence touched a nerve in this strange man, but almost instantly, he became tense and irritable.

Don’t ask how she knew; it was a woman’s intuition.

“Don’t worry about it. Your father asked me to look after you.” His tone was businesslike, different from how he had been at his house.

Sang Ruo smiled. “I still need to thank you. You’re so busy, yet I’ve taken up your rare day off.”

“Mhm.” He ended the conversation with a single syllable, appearing unwilling to continue with the pleasantries.

Sang Ruo thought it was completely bizarre. They were only eight years apart; could the generation gap really be that large?

“I’ll get out here.”

Hearing this, Yi Chen’an frowned, looking at Sang Ruo as if she were a three-year-old making a scene.

Sang Ruo sighed. Leaning against the window, she pointed through the curtain of rain to a convenience store on the street. “I’m going there to buy a few things.”

Yi Chen’an unbuckled his seatbelt. “You can’t get your wound wet. I’ll go buy them.”

“Uh… no need. We’re almost there anyway. I’ll just walk back after I buy them.”

The man repeated firmly, “Buy what?”

Sang Ruo looked at him and, on a sudden impulse, said, “Sanitary pads.”

This was a magical product. The moment Sang Ruo said the name, the man across from her instantly lost his momentum.

“Oh.” He turned away, no longer insisting on going himself.

Yi Chen’an took a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Sang Ruo, instructing, “Cover your wound.”

Sang Ruo did as told and tied it around her knee. “Is there an umbrella?”

Yi Chen’an leaned over to pull a spare umbrella from under the back seat but didn’t give it to her. He said, “Wait a moment.”

He opened his own door, stepped out, opened the umbrella, and walked around to open the door for Sang Ruo, shielding her as she got out of the car.

“I’ll drive you back after you buy them.”

“Really, there’s no need,” Sang Ruo refused. “The traffic is even worse up ahead. It’ll be faster if I just walk back after shopping. You can make a U-turn at the next intersection and head back.”

Yi Chen’an stared at Sang Ruo for a moment. Perhaps to accommodate her shy teenage heart, he finally agreed. He gave the umbrella to Sang Ruo and cautioned, “The road is slippery. Be careful, and send me a message when you get back.”

Sang Ruo watched from the roadside as his car restarted and merged back into the flow of traffic before limping toward the convenience store. The store was crowded, mostly with people taking shelter from the rain. Sang Ruo picked out a basic nightgown, a set of fresh underwear, some skincare products, and a bunch of miscellaneous snacks before heading to the counter.

She left the convenience store carrying a bag of loot.

She hadn’t forgotten to buy the pads; her goal from the start hadn’t been the convenience store, but the chain hotel right next to it.

The sanitary pads had merely been a pretext to convince Yi Chen’an.

The hotel lobby was nearly empty. Sang Ruo told the receptionist, “A single room, for two nights.” She planned to stay holed up in the hotel for the weekend and head back on Monday.

“Certainly, please show me your ID card.”

There was a problem. Sang Ruo searched everywhere but couldn’t find that crucial card. She was sure she had seen it just a moment ago. Had she left it in Yi Chen’an’s car?

“Are you looking for your ID?”

Just as she thought of Yi Chen’an, she heard his voice. Sang Ruo felt a surge of joy. But when she turned around and saw the man she had just parted with standing there with a dark expression, she knew things were bad.

Yi Chen’an was indeed holding her ID card in his hand, but he was soaking wet as if he had fallen into a river. Water was still dripping from his hair.

Having her lie exposed to her face was shameful enough, but seeing Yi Chen’an in this state made her feel even worse.

“You… why did you bring it to me like this? Why didn’t you call me…” She trailed off awkwardly, suddenly remembering she had turned her phone off to avoid Zhou Yan’s harassment.

Yi Chen’an had given her his umbrella, which was why he had been forced to come through the rain.

“Why didn’t you go back to school?”

Even though the drenched man appeared relatively calm on the surface.

Sang Ruo felt certain that Yi Chen’an was furious, so angry that even a single spark would make him explode. Her intuition had always been sharp; she had relied on this talent to escape several beatings from her mother after getting into trouble.

She didn’t dare try to laugh it off with Yi Chen’an right now, so she had no choice but to tell the truth.

“Zhou Yan said he’s been waiting downstairs at my dormitory all afternoon, and he claimed he won’t leave until he sees me.” She stole a timid glance at Yi Chen’an before adding, “Oh, Zhou Yan is my ex-boyfriend. We broke up today.” To make her case more convincing, she added, “He’s acting like this and I’m a bit scared. I don’t know what else he might do, so I don’t dare go back.” She sounded a little bit aggrieved.

The last sentence was, indeed, a deliberate attempt to play the victim and gain sympathy.

Evidently, playing the pity card worked on Yi Chen’an. At the very least, he didn’t seem quite as angry anymore, though his expression remained grim.

The receptionist asked, “Miss, do you still need to check in?”

“No.” Yi Chen’an answered for her. He stepped forward, picked up the large bag of things she had just bought, and walked out. Sang Ruo hurriedly limped after him.

At the entrance, Yi Chen’an reached out his hand and said, “Give me the umbrella.”

“Oh.” Sang Ruo obediently handed it to him.

He took it but didn’t open it. He said to Sang Ruo, “It’s not safe for you to stay in a hotel alone. You have two choices. One: I take you back to your dorm and help you resolve your relationship baggage. Two: come back with me, and you can stay in the guest room.”

“No, there’s no need. I mean, I can handle this myself, I just don’t want to go back to school for now.” Was he joking? Letting Yi Chen’an deal with Zhou Yan? What kind of awkward scene would that be!

Was she supposed to tell Zhou Yan that she found him so annoying that she had to get a family member to step in?

The thought gave her the shivers.

The man didn’t care about whatever messy excuses she was making and quickly cut to the point. “Then I’ll take it that you’ve chosen the second option?”

Sang Ruo held his gaze for a moment before admitting defeat. Hanging her head, she said weakly, “I’ll have to trouble you again, Brother Yi.”

Translator’s Notes