Honeyed Marriage - Chapter 115

Chapter 115

Edited ABE

On the other side, Ruan Yan put down her phone and walked forward slowly. Zhou Mengyan turned his head and saw her, “Awake?”

“En,” she sat in the passenger seat and covered it with a thin blanket, “You just… posted our photo to Moments?”

“What’s wrong?”

She thought about everything in her heart, and shook her head shyly, “Nothing.”

“They said something to me before. I didn’t believe it at the time, but now I believe it.”

“What?”

He looked at her: “When you like someone, you want the whole world to know.”

Ruan Yan was so stunned by his words that she could only blush and look out the window.

Why was this person more and more talkative now…

The car was gradually moving forward, only in a general direction without a specific destination, but it was precisely this way that special places could be discovered.

In the evening, Zhou Mengyan drove to a dock and stopped, took Ruan Yan down and walked, just to see someone catching fish.

There were some residents living nearby, like a small town. Zhou Mengyan looked at the fish those people caught, and an idea flashed in his mind.

Then he asked Ruan Yan to return to the RV first, and then went alone to find the residents who were fishing.

Ten minutes later, he came back with two bags.

Ruan Yan wondered what he went to buy, Zhou Mengyan only said: “Tonight’s food.”

“Do you want to make it yourself?”

He raised his eyes to look at her, “Don’t trust me?”

Ruan Yan remembered the bowl of braised ribs noodles that day, and shook her head with a smile: “I trust you very much.”

Zhou Mengyan squeezed her face, and then continued to drive forward. Finally, the car stopped on a bank with no people. Zhou Mengyan moved a lounge chair and let her sit outside. He handled the ingredients in the kitchen.

Ruan Yan was sitting outside listening to a song, and the sky gradually darkened. She returned to the RV, and the man helped her clean up the table, “It will be ready soon.”

After a while, he carried a stone pot and put it on the table. Ruan Yan smelled a strong fragrance, “Wow, it’s so fragrant. What is it?”

“Fish head tofu soup.”

He bought four catties of red silver carp head from a fisherman, as well as other ingredients such as tofu made by the locals, and wanted to make a pot of fish head tofu soup for Ruan Yan. Eating fish was good for her eyes.

In order to avoid another failure, Zhou Mengyan first asked the local fishermen how they did it, and then called the chef at home to ask again.

So this time, there should be no more cooking fails.

He sat opposite her and scooped a bowl of milky soup for her, “Try it?”

Ruan Yan took a sip and put it in her mouth, and she tasted the extremely fragrant fish soup, with a sweet aftertaste and a mellow aroma.

The man watched her reaction carefully, for fear that she would frown again like last time.

However, after she finished drinking, she narrowed her eyes: “It’s delicious!”

“Really?”

“En! Mengyan, you are great. I feel that you have improved a lot compared to last time. I can’t believe you made this.”

He felt nothing could make him happier than her liking it, “Because the ingredients are good.”

As the saying went, a thousand rolls of tofu and a million rolls of fish.

T/N: According to Baidu- There has long been a saying in Chinese folks that “thousand-boned tofu and ten-thousand-boned fish” means that the longer the tofu is cooked in the pot, the stronger and more chewy it will be. Tofu and fish are relatively resistant to cooking, and only with a long enough cooking time can they eventually become delicious and nutritious.

“It’s really delicious.”

Ruan Yan ate the fish heads and had a great appetite. Zhou Mengyan asked her to drink slowly, and then walked outside the RV, leaving her not knowing what he was working on.

After Ruan Yan finished eating, Zhou Mengyan walked in and asked her if she wanted to come outside and sit.

When he was buying fish just then, he happened to see someone passing by cutting some firewood, so he stopped him and bought some firewood.

The night in February was still relatively cold, and he thought that she would like the two sitting outside and making a fire to keep warm.

He moved a chair and placed it in front of the fire. Ruan Yan sat down, she spread her palms, and felt the heat. Then he put a cloak sweater on her shoulders, “Don’t catch a cold.”

He sat next to her. Ruan Yan smiled and said, “I never did this when I was a kid.”

He took her hand and brought it towards him a little, “We used to do this with my family when I was young.”

“At that time… was it after bankruptcy?”

 “En. The kind of house we lived in in the farmland at the time was very cold in winter, so we could only use this way to keep warm.”

She asked softly, “Was it particularly difficult during that time?”

He was silent for a long while and slowly said: “At that time, my parents borrowed money everywhere, and went out early and returned late. They were both busy. Because of poverty, they could only give me ten yuans a day, including the fare to school.

At that time, our school books cost 20 yuans. I didn’t tell my parents that I saved the two yuans for the bus. I spent half an hour walking to school every day. I also saved breakfast. I ate two meals a day. I had steamed buns for lunch and noodles for dinner. Sometimes I was really hungry, so I only dared to order street food for three yuans, with one meat and two vegetarian dishes.”

Ruan Yan felt very distressed when she heard the words.

Zhou Mengyan said that at that time, he stayed alone at school and was afraid to be with his classmates, because some people would laugh at him. His self-esteem was very high at that time, and he didn’t want others to look at him when he was eating steamed buns because he knew he would be teased.

It was also during that time that he started to say less and become reticent.

“Then the factory was reopened afterwards?”

He tightened his eyelashes: “It did, but at that time… I would rather it had not.”

“Why?”

“One weekend night I was at home and my mother came back early. After hearing her say that my dad was still busy at the factory, I wanted to find him. I bought a piece of cake with the money I had saved and wanted to give it to him. When I went to the factory, I saw my dad and a few men standing at the door of the factory, and I heard my father begging them to borrow money. Those people…”

Zhou Mengyan rolled his Adam’s apple, his eyes were like ink, “Those people laughed at him, saying that as long as he kneeled and kowtowed to them three times, they would agree to lend him the money.”

Ruan Yan was stunned.

“My dad knelt and kowtowed.”

That kind of scene was like a thorn that always pierced Zhou Mengyan’s eyes. He wanted to rush to pull up his father, but he knew that if he appeared, it would be even more harmful to his father’s dignity.

He could only bury this kind of humiliation in the bottom of his heart and never mentioned it to anyone.

Ruan Yan finally understood why Zhou Mengyan’s character had become like this.

The reason why he became so cold in nature, using the eyes of profit to measure everything, including marriage, was because of the past bankruptcy, which made him see people’s betrayal and the cold world. He understood what would become of their lives if there was no money.

Therefore, only fame and fortune would make him feel safe.

He just wanted to take over the company as soon as possible and work hard to make money.

Ruan Yan turned towards him, raised her hand to hug him lightly, leaned on his shoulder, and calmly said: “It’s okay, let those all pass… Dad is great. Although he did this, it doesn’t mean that he is inferior. And now that you are so good, those snobbish people are only despised by you, and they don’t even deserve to stand in front of you.”

As she said at the beginning, if these things did not break them, it would make them stronger.

Her actions seemed to tell him that she would always be by his side.

The man raised his hand and held her silently.

He felt that the coldness in his heart was a little bit resolved by the girl’s embrace.

The healing of wounds was never about time, but love and companionship.

The morning sun came up again, and Zhou Mengyan continued to drive forward with Ruan Yan.

Driving from the southeast to the southwest of China, they looked at all kinds of beautiful scenery along the way.

Sometimes Zhou Mengyan would drive to the town and take her out of the car to stroll around and eat some local delicacies. Sometimes they would drive to the beach. Ruan Yan liked to tread water, so he accompanied her.

Zhou Mengyan also took her to a sea of ??flowers. In the camera, she stood in the sea of ??flowers and turned her head and smiled at him.

He bought her a bouquet of flowers, and he could see that Ruan Yan liked it very much, so he said that he would give her a bouquet of flowers every day.

Sunrise to sunset, early morning to night.

She completely let go of the worries in her heart, felt the nature, and enjoyed the time alone with him.

On the last day, they just drove into a mountain forest, and it was snowing outside.

After Zhou Mengyan told her that it was snowing, Ruan Yan, who grew up in the south and did not often see snow, was excited, “I want to get out of the car!”

He stopped the car and took her out of the car.

Ruan Yan felt the snow lightly on top of her head, but it was a pity that she couldn’t see it.

“Give me your hand,” he said.

He held her hand, spread it out, and lifted it up. After a few seconds, she felt a small dot land on her palm. The ice was cold and gradually melted away. She felt the snow, and then curled her mouth.

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