Accidental Love

Although it was a holiday, the Spring Festival could be considered as one of the busiest days of the year.

Since arriving home on the night of the 28th, Zheng Shuyi pretty much didn't even get to rest properly yet. Her parents nagged her to clean the house and to prepare supplies for the New Year. Then she had to go visit a relative who was sick, and everything was finally over on the night of the thirtieth.

In the evening, dad was busy making New Year's Eve's dinner in the kitchen, and the TV was playing the Chinese New Year celebration performance.

Mrs. Wang sat on the sofa eating sunflower seeds while occasionally glancing at Zheng Shuyi, who was looking at her phone.

"Stop looking at the phone every minute! Your head is almost in the screen!"

Zheng Shuyi gave a "tsk", "I'm sending Chinese New Year greetings to my boss."

"How caring of you," said Wang Meiru, "Did you send New Year greetings to Yu You?"

"Yes, I wished him good luck, endless wealth, a successful job, and good health, is that sincere enough？I typed it word by word."

Wang Meiru obviously knew she was being sarcastic, "You might as well ask him out to a meal and say those personally, I think that's more sincere."

Zheng Shuyi was about to complain when caught a glance at something on her phone and immediately dashed to her room.

"What are you doing! It's almost time to eat!"

"I know!"

After a while, Zheng Shuyi came out of the room the second dinner started.

The two at the dinner table were still talking about Yu You.

"He's busy with work and didn't get home until today. Young people really work very hard nowadays."

"We should let him rest for a few more days, then ask him to bring our girl to dinner together."

"I'm not going."

Zheng Shuyi suddenly appeared at the dinner table. She picked up her bowl with a smile, "Stop trying to pull us together, we don't pair very well, and…"

Zheng Shuyi picked the rice in her bowl and said slowly, "I have arrangements for my own relationships."

Wang Meiru sneered and disapproved, "You say that every time but I never see any of your arrangements."

Zheng Shuyi buried her head in the food and didn't reply, but she was actually smiling very hard.

After a while, she finally muttered, "When I let you see him, I can't imagine how surprised you'll be."

At first, her parents didn't take her words seriously, until on the night of the third day of New Year.

"Why does she sneak out to call at this time every day?"

Wang Meiru tugged at Zheng Su's sleeve, "Could it be true?"

For the past three days, their family went to different relatives’ homes every night to send their New Year's greetings. However, every night at around six or seven, Zheng Shuyi would start to constantly look at her phone and then soon go away with her phone, coming back after quite a while.

Zheng Su held a cup of tea and glanced at the balcony, "Let's go check it out."

On the open-air balcony, Zheng Shuyi was leaning against the fence and the wind blew her hair up.

"Yeah, I'll be attending a wedding tomorrow."

"A senior classmate from my college."

"Yeah, what, no one called you a senior when you were in school?"

Behind the door, Zheng Shuyi's parents looked at each other, showing an unpleasant look on their faces.

"Why is she talking like that?"

"Yeah…"

——

After hanging up the phone, Zheng Shuyi's happy mood immediately disappeared.

Speaking of tomorrow's wedding…

Zheng Shuyi broke a leaf off the plant beside her hand and rubbed it in her hand.

I must go, and when I get there, I must overwhelm Qin! Le! Zhi!

Zheng Shuyi's determination about these kinds of stuff has always been surprising. She got up early the next morning to take a shower and apply a facial mask, after which she sat in front of the dressing table for a good two hours.

Wang Meiru opened the door for the third time. Seeing that she was still playing with her hair, she couldn't help but say, "Are you the bride?"

Zheng Shuyi fiddled with the curls at the end of her hair and said quietly, "Leave me alone."

Since she would be attending today's wedding alone, she must show the imposing manner of at least two people.

According to Zheng Shuyi's experience in attending weddings, the host family would usually divide the guests into tables according to their relationships. Since they were all college classmates, they would obviously be arranged to the same table.

But Chen Yueding obviously had a special consideration for Zheng Shuyi and arranged her to the table of his relatives, and specifically reminded his cousins to take good care of the guests.

However, God didn't do as they wanted. As soon as Zheng Shuyi arrived, a few familiar people from her college already noticed her.

Not everyone knew about the situation, so they naturally felt like Zheng Shuyi should be sitting at their own table. They started to greet her enthusiastically and made the situation a little bit difficult for her and Chen Yueding.

But after all, this was her classmate's wedding. Zheng Shuyi didn't want to cause too much trouble, so she ended up sitting there with them.

Although the people sitting at this table were all students from the University of Finance and Economics, she didn't know many of them very well. The reason they were so enthusiastic was that they were curious how the campus belle was doing recently.

As soon as she sat there, everyone started to chat. They talked about work for a while and then talked about life for another while.

As she thought the topic was going to pass like this, a girl suddenly asked, "Wait, I remember your boyfriend is also from our major? He also had a good relationship with Chen Yueding right? How come you two didn't come together?"

As she mentioned this, everyone suddenly remembered.

"We broke up," said Zheng Shuyi lightly, "I don't know if he'll come today, it doesn't matter."

As soon as the voice fell, the girl next to Zheng Shuyi glanced at the entrance, and suddenly stopped eating the sunflower seed in her hand, "Uh…"

The table of people, including Zheng Shuyi, all looked towards the entrance.

Under the arched door wrapped in flowers, the bride and groom were welcoming guests, and Yue Xingzhou, dressed in formal wear, was standing there talking to Chen Yueding with a smile.

And Qin Lezhi, who was holding his arm, also shook hands with Chen Yueding and then glanced inside, locking her eyes precisely on Zheng Shuyi.

As soon as the two appeared, there was no need for explanation, everyone at this table understood what was going on.

This table, which was full of conversation just now, immediately got quiet.

However, the other people at this table also didn't have a particularly very good relationship with Zheng Shuyi or Yue Xingzhou, so there was no reason to favor anyone, and they naturally changed the subject.

It was just that now that they knew this, the atmosphere inevitably became a little bit awkward.

——

Yue Xingzhou only noticed that Zheng Shuyi was there when he brought Qin Lezhi over.

He thought that she wouldn't come.

Or that even if she came, she would avoid meeting them.

But…

When his expression subtly changed, Qin Lezhi had already sat down and greeted the people at the table.

Then she turned her head and looked at Zheng Shuyi.

Zheng Shuyi was leaning back on her chair, playing on her phone emotionlessly.

To avoid some awkwardness, a few classmates who originally wanted to talk to Yue Xingzhou about his current life did not speak to him.

Everyone at the table was chatting, and only these three people were silent. As if they were in another dimension, the atmosphere became more and more strange.

Fortunately, they didn't arrive very early, and soon, the wedding officially began. Everyone's attention was attracted by the bride and the groom on the stage, and the awkwardness slowly eased out a bit.

After a series of procedures, the atmosphere grew more lively, and then guests also constantly applauded, making the scene very energetic.

Finally, under the guidance of the emcee, the bride turned her back to the guests and held the bouquet high in the air.

The single men and women below stood up, reaching their hands and wishing for luck.

Along with everyone's cheers, the bouquet was tossed into the air and then fell into Zheng Shuyi's hands.

Suddenly catching this, Zheng Shuyi herself was surprised. Holding the bouquet in her hand, she felt a little lost in the crowd of voices.

"Congratulations to our lucky guest of the day!" The emcee was very enthusiastic as he walked over and said joyfully to Zheng Shuyi, "Here, let me pass the microphone to this beauty."

Now with an extra microphone in her hand, Zheng Shuyi was even more confused and stood up in a daze.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

This was a very natural question in this process, but the person who was being asked was Zheng Shuyi.

Yue Xingzhou thought of something and immediately raised his eyes to look at Zheng Shuyi.

The same went for Qin Lezhi, although what she thought of was a bit different from Yue Xingzhou.

Seeing such a situation, the classmates at the table felt a strange aura and all became quiet.

Zheng Shuyi raised her chin and smiled, "I do." Even if she hasn't seen a male creature for the past decade, at this time, she must say that she has a boyfriend!

But Yue Xingzhou's expression suddenly changed.

Similarly, Qin Lezhi twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.

"Sure enough, this bouquet is indeed God's will! You'll definitely live a happy life with your boyfriend!"

The emcee then continued to say a lot of praises and wishes of luck before Zheng Shuyi was finally able to sit down with the bouquet.

The place returned to its former calmness.

Zheng Shuyi glanced at the two in front of her and in front of their faces, she took a picture of the bouquet with her phone.

Then sent it to Shi Yan.

She didn't say anything and just sent a single photo.

Soon, Shi Yan replied: Is the wedding fun?

Zheng Shuyi typed without a smile: No.

Shi Yan: ?

Zheng Shuyi: Met someone I hate. Feel very bad, very unhappy.

Zheng Shuyi: Scratch head.GIF

After sending this message, the bride and groom happened to come over to toast. Zheng Shuyi put down the phone and picked up the glass.

The two left after pouring everyone a glass of wine or juice.

Sitting opposite Zheng Shuyi, Qin Lezhi asked Yue Xingzhou to serve her soup, then make him peel the shrimp shell for her. Her squeamish tone made everyone feel awkward.

In this situation, maybe men wouldn't be able to sense her plans, but sensitive women can immediately get Qin Lezhi's intentions.

Probably out of empathy, some people just didn't like the way she acted, and purposefully asked Zheng Shuyi loudly, "Uh, Shuyi, when are you planning to get married?"

As soon as she said it, Yue Xingzhou's hand stiffened and stopped peeling the shrimp in his hand. His eyes slightly flickered and paid attention to the upcoming answer.

Zheng Shuyi was suddenly brought to this question and didn't plan for an answer ahead of time. She could only smile and reply, "I haven't considered this yet."

"I guess it should be soon too," said the girl again, "Why isn't your boyfriend with you this time? Is he from somewhere else?"

Zheng Shuyi lowered her eyes and nodded.

Yue Xingzhou empty-mindedly placed the shrimp that was supposed to go into Qin Lezhi's bowl into the trash plate.

Qin Lezhi glanced at him coldly.

"What does your boyfriend do? Is it in our industry too?"

Zheng Shuyi let out a "yeah".

"That's pretty nice, colleagues have a common language, maybe you two can help each other with work. Uh, is he also a journalist?"

"No," said Zheng Shuyi softly.

"Ah, then I guess he's from the financial industry? Also pretty good. Men in the financial circle are all highly educated and pretty rich."

The girl was purposefully saying these because she wanted to help Zheng Shuyi out.

Of course, Qin Lezhi knew what she was trying to say. After holding back her anger for a long time, she finally said coldly, "Yeah, I know him. He's very well-educated and is excellent at doing everything."

As soon as she spoke, everyone who was pretending not to be eating melon all looked at Qin Lezhi.1Eating melon in Chinese means someone who is not taking part in a situation and is simply there to enjoy the show.

What kind of situation is this?

Even Yue Xingzhou was dumbfounded.

Qin Lezhi stirred the soup with her spoon and said lightly, "Graduated from a foreign school with a bachelor's degree, a company executive, a ridiculously high annual salary, an excellent personality, he's a talented person who's good at pretty much everything."

With every word she said, Zheng Shuyi's face grew darker.

At this moment, Zheng Shuyi had already guessed what she was going to say.

She looked up, and sure enough, she saw her shrugging her shoulders and saying slowly, "It's just that he's quite old and has a family already."

"…"

Silence.

Dead silence.

The people who had helped Zheng Shuyi stopped talking.

After all, human nature tended to believe what was worse and not to come up with something logical to rebuttal.

The first person to break the silence was Yue Xingzhou.

"What nonsense are you talking about?!"

Qin Lezhi didn't refute and just smiled, "Just pretend that was all nonsense."

However, Zheng Shuyi was not as angry and irritated as Qin Lezhi had imagined, she just slowly raised her eyes and looked at her.

"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want!"

Qin Lezhi smiled and nodded, "I understand this better than you do."

"Oh?" Zheng Shuyi clenched her fists and smiled, "Breaking other's relationships, making up lies for others, indeed, you understand this better than me. I haven't learned those yet."

"…"

After saying this, everyone knew what was going on.

It turned out… Yue Xingzhou was the one who cheated and broke up with her.

The atmosphere turned so stiff that it could almost suffocate everyone.

The people around seemed to bury their heads in their food in silence, but this embarrassment made their toes almost dig out an ancient artifact in the ground.

Zheng Shuyi was still staring at Qin Lezhi. Neither of them was backing down and their stares grew more intense.

"Stop!" Yu Xingzhou interrupted Qin Lezhi, "Both of you stop!"

Also at this moment, Zheng Shuyi's phone on the table rang.

A call from Shi Yan.

Zheng Shuyi's heart started to beat faster and then she stiffly picked it up.

She heard the familiar voice on the phone.

"If you're not happy then don't stay there."

"Come down, I'm downstairs."

Zheng Shuyi's stiff hands didn't move, but her pupils suddenly dilated.

In just a few seconds, various emotions were climbing in the heart like vines, intertwining into a dense net.

After a second, Zheng Shuyi suddenly got up. She was no longer as calm as before.

"I have something to do, you guys continue."

Someone wanted to stop her, but didn't know what to say, "Wait! This, this…"

"Did Zheng Shuyi cry?"

"We're all students and classmates, what's the point?"

"Let's go follow her and take a look."

——

Zheng Shuyi didn't know why, but she couldn't control how fast she was walking. She skipped a stair or two in her high heels as she walked down.

She walked very quickly and in just a few minutes, she started to sweat, but she only walked faster and faster.

She opened the door of the hotel and saw Shi Yan standing by the fountain.

Zheng Shuyi suddenly felt relieved.

But this kind of "relief" fell like a huge stone on Zheng Shuyi's heart.

This stone, named "relief", contained a lot more complex emotions.

For a moment, Zheng Shuyi's heart was stuck in place.

Thoughts that went against her original intention exploded in her chest.

Why is it you?

Why is it you who always comes to me when I need help the most?

She stood there, although she didn't say anything, her face was full of grievances.

Shi Yan didn't know that she was having a huge battle in her heart. He raised his eyebrows, stepped forward, and reached out for her hand at the stairs.

Zheng Shuyi looked at that hand. Her fingertips trembled slightly, and before she had time to think, her hand already grabbed his.

Afterward, the other hand came too.

Shi Yan glanced at her and didn't say anything. He just let her hold himself and brought him to where the car was parked.

The driver quickly got out of the car and opened the door for them.

After getting in the car, Zheng Shuyi still didn't say a word, she just held on to his hand tightly.

Shi Yan studied her and said with somewhat of a smile, "How do you even manage to get bullied at a wedding? You aren't a child anymore."

Zheng Shuyi: "…"

She raised her head, frowned, and stared at Shi Yan.

"What are you staring at me for?" Shi Yan tilted his head and gently rubbed her hair as he said softly, ”Am I the one bulling you?"

Zheng Shuyi was about to speak, but she stopped herself and said nothing.

But when she slowly turned her head, she found a lot of people standing in front of the hotel already.

Yue Xingzhou, Qin Lezhi, Chen Yueding, and two or three others from the same table.

They stood there with different expressions. They have obviously been standing there for a while already and saw the scene just now.

Shi Yan followed Zheng Shuyi's gaze, and the first one he noticed was Yue Xingzhou.

He frowned and his eyes sank.

But Zheng Shuyi sitting next to him had already lowered the car window and looked at Qin Lezhi directly.

She let out a breath and pulled the aggravated look off her face. Then she reached out her hand and hooked her finger at her.

"What are you looking at? Shouldn't you be greeting your elder?"

Shi Yan glanced at Zheng Shuyi lightly.

But over there, Qin Lezhi's mind buzzed like an echo in an ice cellar.

How… how is she with Mr. Shi…

Qin Lezhi didn't dare to look directly at Shi Yan.

But…

Her eyes fell to the front row and the driver in the driver's seat was looking at her in surprise.

Elder…?

When did Zheng Shuyi know about her relationship with the driver?

Qin Lezhi glanced at the driver, then saw Zheng Shuyi's arrogant expression, and finally understood.

So she has been waiting for this moment. She must have known that she was the niece of Shi Yan's driver, and had been waiting to humiliate her.

But…

Qin Lezhi glanced at Shi Yan and saw his oppressive eyes and suddenly felt a chill up her back.

Her legs felt like they were filled with lead, but she still walked over step by step.

She didn't dare to not go.

After she walked a few steps, Yue Xingzhou, who just came back to his senses, also quickly followed.

Qin Lezhi stood still in front of the car and she could no longer hold the expression on her face anymore, but she couldn't get herself to say anything.

Until the driver poked his head out and asked confusedly, "Lele, why are you here?"

Qin Lezhi's face was completely pale, ‘Uncle, I, I came to attend the wedding…"

Zheng Shuyi, who still had a domineering look just a second ago: ?

The expression on her face was changing drastically at a speed that was visible to the naked eye. She looked dazed and was unable to recover for a long time. Then she slowly turned her neck inch by inch, looking at the driver and trying to use all her brain to figure out the relationships here.

Half a second later ――

Shit!???

Who are you calling uncle???

The driver's your uncle???

At the same time, Yue Xingzhou, who had just caught up to Qin Lezhi, also heard "uncle".

He froze in place.

Uncle?

He looked at Qin Lezhi and the driver in confusion, then turned his head to look at Zheng Shuyi mechanically, recalling what she said that day.

After a while, Yue Xingzhou asked questionably, "Aunt?"

Zheng Shuyi almost choked to death on the spot.

"Who's your aunt!!! Don't call people that randomly!!!!"

She kicked her leg like a spring, and the whole person slammed into the seat of the car, and she held onto the hand like it was her life.

Next second.

Zheng Shuyi turned her head in a daze and met Shi Yan's look. Her brain seemed to be smashed by a heavy object and exploded with a loud bang.

You're not her uncle??

Her uncle is your driver???

When Shi Yan saw Zheng Shuyi's sluggish gaze, he was puzzled and raised his eyes, "Who are these people?"

Zheng Shuyi didn't even blink her eyes.

I also want to ask, who are you???

You're not her uncle??

What have I been doing for these past few months???

When Zheng Shuyi's brain was full of question marks, Shi Yan glanced around and lightly scanned the faces of these people, and then landed his eyes on Zheng Shuyi.

Her face turned completely pale already.

Shi Yan felt her hands turn cold and gently squeezed them to comfort her.

But Zheng Shuyi pulled her hand away like she was just shocked.

Looking at Shi Yan, her breathing stagnated.

I messed up.

Translator's Note: Stay tuned for the next chapter on Saturday ╰(*°▽°*)╯

1Eating melon in Chinese means someone who is not taking part in a situation and is simply there to enjoy the show.