I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 107
Chole is an easygoing person.
She goes with the flow, never insisting that others must stay by her side, and similarly, she will not stay in one spot out of some misguided softheartedness.
She only does what she wants to do, goes where she wants to go and meets whom she wants to meet.
For example, before she came to China and wanted to find out what happened to Han Feixu and how she was doing now, she logged onto China’s most commonly used websites and searched for everyone who was possibly connected with Han Feixu.
So when she found out about Liang Zhu, Chloe was very surprised. She didn’t expect that even her agent could have such a splendid resume.
A teenage genius who was once praised for having a voice kissed by the Muses, and known as the soprano princess, Liang Zhu was the youngest female lead in Broadway’s “Phantom of the Opera”. Every one of her titles was so dazzling and she had a resume an agent shouldn’t have.
What’s more strange was that she found this resume on Google, but there was no information about Liang Zhu on Chinese websites.
At that time, she was still in France and was busy dealing with her estates and moving. She glanced at the resume briefly and then closed the page, not bothering to dig any deeper.
The Liang Zhu she saw in the photos was only seventeen years old, but the Liang Zhu she met in person didn’t look much older. It was as if time had left no traces on Liang Zhu, and even though more than a decade had passed, she still looked like she was seventeen.
At that time, she was preoccupied with Han Feixu and didn’t pay much attention. It was only after everything had settled down and Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin had completely reconciled that she remembered a mysterious agent was waiting to be uncovered by her.
Chloe is French and so she follows her heart. All her actions are based on her own desires. So because she was interested in Liang Zhu, she showed her kindness and gradually became friends with her. And because she wanted to know about Liang Zhu’s past, she asked outright. When she heard Liang Zhu casually mention that she fell ill and could no longer sing, she said it was a pity.
When Liang Zhu asked her why she was feeling pity, she said it was a pity she couldn’t hear Liang Zhu’s singing voice, which must have been beautiful.
Liang Zhu couldn’t see any real sympathy or pity in her eyes. After all these years, Chloe was the only person who didn’t think there was any difference between a singer and an agent. After all, Liang Zhu could live a good life as a singer, but wasn’t she living just as well as an agent?
Chloe truly didn’t see it as a big deal, but she could clearly feel that from that day on Liang Zhu’s attitude toward her had finally warmed up a bit.
Liang Zhu, deep down, is a kind person who treats everyone the same. As long as they are good people, then she likes them. She is a friendly person, at least on the surface. If you really dig deeper, you’d find not many people are actually close to her save for Han Feixu. However, Han Feixu always tells Liang Zhu everything about her life, but Liang Zhu never shares many trivial matters back.
Liang Zhu didn’t think there was anything bad about the way she lived. She had friends and family. Perhaps her only lacking point was not having a boyfriend or girlfriend, but that didn’t matter to her and she lived well by herself.
It’s not that no one had tried to introduce her to someone, but she tends to push them away on the grounds that she is an anti-marriage person.
She is an ardent anti-marriage person.
People’s hearts change so easily. She has seen many couples come and go with her own eyes. Two people get married and think the other person is their whole life. Then they get divorced and try their best to kill each other. Finding someone you truly love and whose love lasts for decades is harder than winning the lottery. And Liang Zhu believed she was not that lucky of a person. She couldn’t stand such torture, let alone all that betrayal and hurt.
So she decided to be an anti-marriage person and cut herself off from all harm by doing so.
It took three years before Chole was finally able to get Liang Zhu to tell her the reasons above. The reasons behind Liang Zhu not wanting to marry. Chole rested her chin in one hand and asked, “It’s true that you won’t get hurt this, but doesn’t this also cut off potential paths to happiness?”
Liang Zhu smiled faintly, she didn’t mind if she did. If happiness meant bearing the risk of being hurt, she would rather not have that kind of happiness at all.
Chloe looked at her expression and said nothing more.
As spring brought fragrant flowers, summer brought the sound of frogs croaking, autumn brought cool breezes, and winter brought falling snow. Days passed by and the pages of the calendar were torn off one by one. Everyone’s lives encountered new developments, even the child Yiyi grew up and received her first love confession. However, Liang Zhu remained the same, an agent who runs a Taobao shop on the side.
If there were any differences in her life, it would be the fact that she moved out of her old apartment near the school district.
Her new apartment was still in the city center, still modest in size at just over ninety square meters, and yet it nearly drained all of Liang Zhu’s savings.
On the day of the move, all her friends were there. Han Feixu, generous as always, gifted her a life-sized premium amethyst stone, saying it would help her gather wealth into her home. They had a small party during the day, and by night, after everyone had left, leaving Liang Zhu with a mess and an empty apartment.
For the first time in many years, Liang Zhu felt a bit lonely.
Just then, the doorbell rang. Liang Zhu ran to open the door, thinking someone had left something behind. Instead, she found Chole on the other side, dressed in a casual outfit and with a broom in one hand.
The head of Marie Claire’s Chinese branch (that’s right, Chloe had been promoted from chief editor to head of the entire branch and could now be considered a pioneer of the fashion industry) was standing there in simple but extremely warm and comfortable casual clothes. And she was here to help Liang Zhu sweep her floor.
Liang Zhu couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.
Later, she found out that Chloe had bought the apartment next door, which was twice the size of hers. Liang Zhu couldn’t help but sigh, it would be great to have so much money.
Living close to each other turned out to be beneficial for both women. They could eat together anytime they wanted to, borrow each other’s clothes and makeup, although most of the time it was Liang Zhu borrowing Chole’s, and much more.
Sometimes, when Liang Zhu forgot her keys, she would crash at Chloe’s place for the night. Chloe’s place had four bedrooms, one converted into a studio, one a guest room, and another had become Liang Zhu’s private guest room. It wasn’t until later that Liang Zhu realized this bedroom had slowly become filled with her own things, such as scripts, contracts, delivery boxes, and even a printer. Actually, it was even more well-equipped than her own home.
They weren’t exactly lovers, but their relationship had progressed beyond mere friendship.
Liang Zhu had instinctively wanted to distance herself when she realized this. She even considered selling her apartment and moving far away. But then she realized, where could she hide? Her life has become intertwined with Chole’s in many ways, so even if she moved, they would still bump into each other.
So running away wasn’t the solution. The only solution was to confront it head on.
So Liang Zhu confronted Chloe and said she felt that the current situation felt wrong. Chloe, however, asked her what was wrong with it.
They didn’t live together, had no financial entanglements, and no emotional disputes either. So what exactly was wrong?
Liang Zhu couldn’t answer her. She wanted to leave, but Chloe wouldn’t let her, and instead used this opportunity to discuss taking their relationship further. Chloe felt that since both of them didn’t want to marry and were already so close, they might as well maintain this comfortable and intimate state and take it a step further.
Liang Zhu didn’t want to marry, and Chloe said she didn’t want to either. Liang Zhu feared getting hurt, but Chloe promised to leave immediately if she ever hurt Liang Zhu, and even had Han Feixu act as their witness to this promise. For every reason Liang Zhu came up with to refuse this proposal, Chloe had a counterargument until Liang Zhu ran out of reasons to say no.
And just like that, Liang Zhu found herself no longer single in her middle age.
Chloe kept her promise. She never forced Liang Zhu to do anything she didn’t want to do or cause her harm in any way. Their relationship remained discreet, and they maintained ownership over their own homes, but their belongings were scattered between their places, and they often spent nights together in each other’s homes. It actually made Liang Zhu feel like an emperor deciding which bedroom to sleep in tonight.
Two years passed in this manner, and one day, as Liang Zhu lay in bed, she suddenly opened her eyes and frowned at the person next to her.
Something felt off.
Why does she feel like she’s been hoodwinked by the French woman next to her?
Author’s Notes:
Liang Zhu: You’re tricking me, and you’re still tricking me.
Chloe: I fooled you~ Fooled you~