Honeyed Marriage - Chapter 140
Chapter 140
Edited by ABE
Ruan Yan’s cheeks turned pink in embarrassment.
At this time, the knock on the door sounded again.
Jiang Cheng walked in, his face was somber, and he was silent: “Mr Zhou… Mr Xu Hongwen is here again, and if he can see you, he said that he will take ten minutes.”
When Zhou Mengyan heard the words, a fleeting emotion flashed across his eyes, and his expression became cold:
“I won’t see him.”
“Ok.”
After Jiang Cheng left, Ruan Yan asked casually, “Who is this person?”
Zhou Mengyan’s dark eyes were deep, and he said quietly, “No one.”
Ruan Yan noticed the change in his mood, thought about it and didn’t ask any more. So she let him work, and went to sit next to him.
At noon, Ruan Yan and Zhou Mengyan went downstairs to eat together. The man didn’t let her go home and continued to take her back to the office.
Ruan Yan felt a little sleepy and went to the lounge.
The man worked quietly outside until his cell phone rang, which was a string of unfamiliar numbers.
After a while, he picked it up. Without speaking, a pleading voice came from the other end: “Mengyan, can you let me see you? I’m still downstairs at your company.”
Zhou Mengyan looked cold.
“I beg you, Mengyan, let me see you, and I will just say something. You make me completely give up. Mengyan, for the sake of when we used to play together when we were young…”
Zhou Mengyan directly hung up the phone.
Memories of the past sprung up crazily in his mind, and the nightmares that had been hard to pass over the years were like a dense net that tightened his heart again.
The dark tide rolled over.
When Jiang Cheng came in again and brought coffee, Zhou Mengyan said:
“Is Xu Hongwen still there?”
“Ah… yes, Mr Xu also called five minutes ago.”
“Let him come up.” Zhou Mengyan said.
Jiang Cheng was taken aback for a moment and nodded out.
Three minutes later, the door of the office was opened, and a man with black short sleeves and a haggard face walked in.
“Mengyan——”
Xu Hongwen stepped forward and looked at Zhou Mengyan with a complex expression.
Zhou Mengyan got up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, and looked at the scenery of the financial district towards the outside, with a cold voice: “After speaking, leave.”
Xu Hongwen’s throat slipped: “Mengyan, I really have no choice but to come to you, which is what my dad meant. My company’s current development situation is very bad, and it is difficult to do business this year…”
“Does it have anything to do with me?”
Zhou Mengyan cut off his words.
Xu Hongwen lowered his head and moved his lips: “Can you… lend your cousin a sum of money? borrow a sum of money from your cousin? If you can’t get the money, my company will not be able to stay open. My dad is old and now he’s staying at home and his legs make it inconvenient for him to move around.
Xu Hongwen thought of his son, “Jiajia fell ill some time ago and is now in the hospital every day. Now I am carrying the family and company by myself. I know I should not trouble you, but I really have nowhere to go.”
Zhou Mengyan turned his head and looked at him, with a smile that didn’t reach the bottom of his eyes:
“Don’t you think this scene is a bit familiar?”
Xu Hongwen was stunned and spoke again:
“I’ll owe this money to you, and I will pay it back to you within five years. Can you help me…”
“Why should I lend you money?” The man’s voice was as cold as water on a winter night.
Xu Hongwen choked for a while.
After a while, he said: “Mengyan, I know you are still resenting my dad for not giving your family a little help back then.. Sorry. My dad also asked me to apologize to you…”
Zhou Mengyan asked: “After our family went bankrupt, I remember it was when your business was at its best? Why didn’t you make a little more money at that time? Now your situation is much better than we were back then.”
“Mengyan, at that time we were still young. No matter what the conflicts between our family were at the beginning, it was all the matter of the previous generation and had nothing to do with us.”
“Oh?” The man raised his mouth, “Then, do you remember what you did to me?”
Xu Hongwen bowed his head: “Mengyan, can we let bygones be bygones? I know that our family hurt you, but now, we have retribution. Even if you look at it, we are still relatives…”
Zhou Mengyan picked up the lighter on the table, lit a cigarette, and looked up at him:
“What you said is especially like what my parents asked you at the time.”
Xu Hongwen was silent.
Zhou Mengyan’s fingers were scarlet, and he spit out his cigarette, “I won’t lend you a penny, do you give up now?”
Xu Hongwen clenched his fists: “…Why, do you want me to beg you?”
The undercurrent of the man’s eyes was surging, he smiled for a while, then turned to look at him:
“It’s no use begging me.”
“Must you be so cold-blooded?” Xu Hongwen asked.
“Isn’t this what you taught me back then?”
“Mengyan…”
“Your ten minutes are up.”
The corners of Xu Hongwen’s eyes are red, “The money I want to borrow is nothing to you. Is it so difficult? Isn’t it OK for me to apologize to you for the past?”
Zhou Mengyan pressed the phone: “Take Mr. Xu out.”
Xu Hongwen completely lost his strength and nodded, “…I will go out by myself.”
Xu Hongwen walked to the door.
Zhou Mengyan looked at his back. A few seconds later, the door of the lounge opened and Ruan Yan walked out.
Zhou Mengyan looked at the girl with complicated eyes, and an emotion flashed across his eyes.
Ruan Yan walked to him, and a few seconds later, the man’s dumb voice fell: “You heard?”
She gently held his hand, her voice was very soft: “Yeah.”
Silence.
A few seconds later, Zhou Mengyan raised his hand to cover her hair and rubbed it, his voice was very weak:
“Go in first, I will finish smoking.”
Ruan Yan nodded.
Walking to the entrance of the lounge, she turned her head to see the man standing in front of the French window, his back alone.
She knew that he needed quiet time at the moment, so she didn’t dare to bother anymore.
After a long time, the door of the lounge was finally opened.
Zhou Mengyan walked in.
She got up from the bed and walked to him, “Mengyan?”
Holding her hand, he walked to the sofa and pulled her to sit on his lap.
The man did not speak, Ruan Yan felt his depressed mood, his heart was bitter, and she hugged him:
“Mengyan, if you are unhappy, tell me, okay? I’m your wife, and I can share these with you.”
She leaned on his shoulder, “Just like when I was unhappy before, you would be willing to listen.”
After a long while, the man raised his hand to wrap her around, and in a dumb voice, talked about the past.
“I used to like my cousin’s family very much.”
When the business of their luggage company was still very good that year, the relatives around were envious. Their cousin Xu Pengyun saw how profitable this industry was, so he also opened a luggage factory.
Zhou Sili did not feel irritated because Xu Pengyun was a colleague. He shared with Xu Pengyun a lot of experience and took him to make money together.
Although the two were in a cooperative relationship, Xu Pengyun had always been jealous of the Zhou family.
Later, after Xu Pengyun made his own business better and better, he found an excuse to stop cooperating with Zhou Sili, intending to grow alone, and regarded Zhou Sili’s company as a competitor.
Gradually, although the two still had contacts, Zhou Sili also felt that Xu Pengyun’s attitude toward them was lukewarm, and Zhou Sili could understand it. After all, their relationship was now mixed with interests.
He did not tell his son about the business conflicts, so Zhou Mengyan and Xu Hongwen, the two cousins, still often played together.
Xu Pengyun also did not pass the adult’s anger to the children, so when Zhou Mengyan arrived at the Xu’s house, Xu Pengyun sometimes took him out to play with Xu Hongwen, and Zhou Mengyan also particularly liked his cousin.
Until the Zhou family went bankrupt, the two families still maintained a good relationship in appearance.
However, after the bankruptcy, everything changed.
Zhou Sili asked Xu Pengyun to lend him money. Xu Pengyun calmed down and said that he would lend the money to them in a few days. In fact, after a few days, it was a few days later, and he shied away again and again.
He even snatched Zhou Sili’s original business, took advantage of the trend, and made a fortune.
As a child, Zhou Mengyan didn’t even know these things.
At that time, he watched his parents borrow money everywhere. It was very hard. He wondered if he could help his parents. Then he thought that his cousin had always been kind to him, so he planned to find his cousin, and wanted to be a little adult and help his parents borrow some money.
He felt that his uncle was so good to him and would definitely help him.
He ran to the Xus alone, and his cousin saw him and took him into the house. The two waited in the yard for Xu Pengyun to come back.
Xu Pengyun returned home at night and seeing Zhou Mengyan asked him why he was here.
Zhou Mengyan stood in front of him, raised his head and asked, “Cousin, can you lend some money to our family?”
After he finished, Xu Pengyun patted his head: “This is a matter between adults. Let the adults solve it. You’re a child, just study hard. I will discuss and communicate with your parents. You go home first.”
Zhou Mengyan was taken out of the house. He was standing in front of the house and was about to leave when he heard his aunt’s voice from inside:
“What are you talking about with this kid?! This family is finished yet endless, and his parents sent a kid over, don’t they all say that they won’t give them a penny?!”
“Wenwen, you are not allowed to play with your cousin in the future. If he comes, you are not allowed to let him in again! This person will dirty the floor of my house when he enters my house!”
Zhou Mengyan on that night returned home with tears in his eyes.
He didn’t know that Cousin and Auntie disliked him so much, and that those who were good on the surface were just pretending to be good.
Later, during the Chinese New Year, one day it was Xu Pengyun’s birthday banquet. When the Zhou family received the invitation, the parents took Zhou Mengyan with them.
Because he hadn’t seen Xu Hongwen for a long time, Zhou Mengyan spent all his pocket money that week, bought a puzzle, spent the whole night putting it together, and wanted to give it to his cousin. They usually put the puzzle together.
Zhou Mengyan followed his parents. At the family banquet, he saw Xu Hongwen and ran up happily: “Cousin——”
Xu Hongwen turned his head and glanced at him, panicked, his face blank: “What are you looking for me for?”
“To give you a jigsaw puzzle. There are 4 versions of this jigsaw puzzle. I only bought one. Can we do it together during the winter vacation?”
“I’m not free, I need to do my homework.”
“Then can I go to your house to find you to do homework?”
“My father won’t let you come to my house.”
Zhou Mengyan lowered his head and handed out the puzzle, “Cousin, then I will give you…”
Xu Hongwen hesitated, took it, and turned and left. He was stopped by his mother who took away the jigsaw puzzle in her hand: “What kind of thing is this mess? Take it home?! Hurry up and throw this for me!”
Zhou Mengyan looked up and saw his aunt walk to the trash can and threw the puzzle directly in.
Zhou Mengyan was stunned, and quickly ran up to pick up the puzzle in the trash can, and saw that the puzzle on it was all broken, and some dirty soup leftovers were still stuck.
He carefully wiped off the dirt, and several children ran over and saw him, “Hey, this person is a child from a bankrupt family!”
“Your house is bankrupt, you live in the sewer! You are a stinky mouse!”
The children snatched his jigsaw puzzle, threw it on the ground, and laughed at him like adults. Xu Hongwen stood not far away without saying a word.
Zhou Mengyan stared at them with red eyes, “I am not a stinky mouse.”
“You are what you are!”
After a group of jostling children were taken away by their parents, Zhou Mengyan stood alone, and Qin Xi came to him: “What’s the matter? Let’s eat?”
Zhou Mengyan lowered his head, put the puzzle into his pocket, and was led away by Qin Xi.
The three of them were sitting at the corner table. Zhou Mengyan had been eating steamed buns and porridge for many days. He saw chicken, duck and fish on the table, and Qin Xi put the vegetables in his bowl, but he was not in the mood to eat.
Several relatives at the same table watched him not eat, smiled and sneered at him: “Kid, eat more food quickly. How many days since your family hasn’t eaten good food? Why don’t you hurry up and eat more meat?”
Zhou Mengyan lowered his head and said nothing.
Later, when Xu Pengyun’s family came to this table to toast, Zhou Mengyan and Qin Xi saw them, got up, smiled and handed out the red envelope to celebrate the birthday. But the other party took it, touched the thickness of the red envelope, grimaced and threw the red envelope back on the table with a smile:
“Your family is in difficulty now, so you should keep the money for yourself. Take it as if we are asking your family of three to come over and eat a full meal today.”
The aunt came over and said, “Yeah, let your son eat more food. You can see how thin he is.”
Many people turned their eyes, and the smiles on Zhou Sili and Zhou Mengyan’s faces were stiff. Zhou Sili once again took the red envelope and handed it out, “How can this be true, you keep it…”
Xu Pengyun smiled, “Keep it for yourself. Don’t look for people to borrow money everywhere, chasing after others’ butts all day long like a mangy dog. It is better to take the money and buy new clothes for Meng Yan. Don’t you think?”
Zhou Sili’s entire face gradually sank, “Xu Pengyun, do you have to humiliate people like this when you speak?”
“Isn’t that the case? Looking for relatives everywhere to borrow money eagerly, how do you plan to send me a red envelope and let me lend you the money?” Xu Pengyun looked at other people around him, “Who would like to lend some money to Zhou’s family? It’s not easy for the Zhou family, which one of you kindly helps?”
“Xu Pengyun, don’t go too far!”
That day, it was the first time Zhou Mengyan saw his father angry. The three of them were trampled on the ground.
At that time, no one spoke for them. They were watching the excitement or were afraid to speak. In the end they were kicked out of the birthday party by Xu Pengyun. Zhou Mengyan looked at the embarrassed faces of his parents and the strange eyes cast by his relatives around him. A needle stuck in his heart.
The humiliation that day. Lingered forever.
On that day, piece by piece of indifference and humiliation became the world in his eyes.
Having tasted the scorching state of the world, he would never expect any human touch in the world anymore.
He hated those who ridicule and sneer, and he hated those who sit on the sidelines.
To this day, he still hates it.
Who would have thought that people who ridiculed and humiliated them at the time would turn around and beg them.
How ridiculous.
Zhou Mengyan looked at Ruan Yan, his eyes were red:
“When we needed them, where were they? Now they want me to help them… Why?”
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