That night, Su Le ate 2 large bowls of rice under the passionate care of the Wei family. She was so full that she only fell asleep late in the night.
The next morning, when she woke up and climbed out of bed, Su Le breathed in deeply a few times before doing her morning routine. There were many plants and flowers planted around the courtyard house, so the air was fresh and nice to breathe in.
After breakfast, Su Le and Wei Chu stayed and chatted with the elders for a while before they prepared to leave. Mother Wei gave them some food she had prepared before allowing them to leave.
"Auntie and Uncle are very kind," Su Le sat in the car as she remembered their interactions from the day before. It was much more pleasant than she had expected. She felt extremely relieved.
"You're not nervous anymore?" As Wei Chu drove cautiously, he said, "I've told you before that you shouldn't worry. My mother also said that you don't need to buy so many gifts when you visit in the future."
Su Le smiled as she lowered her head. She did not reply but neither did she rebut his words.
Wei Chu took a quick glance at her. His smile was very bright and eye-catching.
After meeting his parents, Wei Chu and Su Le's relationship had gotten closer. Sometimes, Su Le would take the initiative and go to Wei Chu's small villa to get a free meal and they would cook together. The feeling was not bad.
At night, they would take a walk together. During the day, when they had the time to, they would go to the city and play. They gradually became more familiar with and understanding of each other. When they were together, they were not like people who were still in their first love, careful and impulsive; instead, they were like old lovers with strong mutual understanding.
—————-
The weather became colder as winter came. Su Le originally planned to return home during the national holidays but her mother had unexpectedly booked a holiday to Hong Kong. In the end, Su Le could only cancel her plans. Instead, she prepared to stay at home to ponder over the plot of her novel. After all, earning some extra income was also great.
The day before the national holiday, Su Le's company treated the employees to a meal. Su Le and her colleagues happily ate together, but when they left the restaurant, they discovered that it was raining.
It was currently October and the weather was gradually becoming cooler. So, when it rained it was especially chilly. Su Le was wearing a dress today, so as she stood outside the restaurant, she instantly got goosebumps as the chilly wind blew.
At this time, it was difficult to catch a taxi, but some of her male colleagues bravely stood at the bus stop to wait for the bus. Her female colleagues stood outside the restaurant while they took their phone out to call someone to pick them up.
People who had a husband or boyfriend called them, and those who didn't call their friends. Su Le pondered hard about whether she should call Wei Chu because he was a company's CEO and she didn't know if he was busy at the moment.
While Su Le was still struggling to decide, her phone that was in her bag started to ring. She took her phone out and saw it was from Wei Chu.
"It's raining. Has the meal ended yet? I'm almost at the restaurant."
"It's over," Su Le smiled as she watched the anxious crowd around her. She felt unexplainably relieved and this made her smile become stronger.
"Su Le, someone has come to pick you up." A colleague next to Su Le poked her elbow while they pointed at a man who was getting out of his car not too far away. The man had a blue umbrella and under the night sky, the color of the umbrella seemed especially dark.
Some of her female colleagues started to hoot in goodwill. When Wei Chu got closer, these colleagues tactfully quieted down and didn't create any more noise.
Su Le walked under the umbrella that Wei Chu was holding and turned towards her colleagues to ask, "Do you want us to send you home?"
All her colleagues simultaneously rejected, "No need, no need, we all have someone to pick us up. The two of you should head home quickly." No one wanted to be the third wheeler as it was not tactful.
Wei Chu passed the jacket he was holding to Su Le. After she put the jacket on, he looked towards Su Le's colleagues and said, "You don't need to be courteous. The rain could worsen; let's all go together."
"There's really no need," Everyone carried on waving their hand to reject his offer again.
Su Le did not insist on it any longer and followed Wei Chu back to his car. As Wei Chu drove, the windshield wipers constantly moved to clear out the raindrops on the windscreen. The sound of the rain splashing against the windows made Su Le feel a little different.
"Didn't you say you had something to do tonight?" Su Le asked while smiling.
"I have settled the matter and noticed that it was raining. The temperature at night is relatively cold now so I brought a jacket for you as well when I left," Wei Chu glanced at the jacket that Su Le was wearing, "It's easy to catch a cold in this weather so it's better to be more careful."
When they arrived st Su Le's apartment building, Wei Chu followed Su Le to her home for a chat, "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"
Su Le thought for a moment before she replied, "No, I originally planned to go back to my mother's but she went to Hong Kong."
"Then, you can stay at my place for the next few days." Wei Chu worriedly added, " For the past few days, you must have sat in front of your computer writing novels and forgot to eat on time. That is not good for your health."
Su Le froze. She remembered her books that were lined up in Wei Chu's bookshelf, "You knew that I wrote novels?" She was finally going to get an answer to the guess she had had… This feeling she had was rather unusual.
Wei Chu coughed dryly. When he realized Su Le didn't seem to be angry, he explained, "When you attended the authors' meet last year, my friend spotted you and told me about it."
"Your friend knows me?" Su Le sat on the sofa carefreely before she slowly said, "It's really fate."
Wei Chu carried on coughing. He was embarrassed to tell Su Le that he kept a picture of her in his wallet and that friend of his had seen it a couple of times. His friend had secretly taken a photo of Su Le and sent it to him to confirm if it was the same person.
But no matter what, this was still a coincidence that he did not know how to explain. Wei Chu thought for a while before deciding to say, "My friend recognized you, and after he knew your pen name, he told me about it."
Su Le didn't think that there were many coincidences in this world. She looked at Wei Chu, maybe it was really fate? When Wei Chu liked her, she didn't know about it. When Wei Chu learned to cook for her, she also didn't know about it. But he knew of everything she did. Her heart felt warm. She stood up and walked towards her bedroom.
Wei Chu watched in worry, "Are you angry?"
Seeing that he was worried, Su Le laughed, "Didn't you tell me to live at your place? I need to pack. After all, I can't just wear the same outfit for a few days, can I?"
"I'll help you," Wei Chu was relieved as he enthusiastically planned to help her.
"A man is not allowed to enter a woman's bedroom. You should just sit here and wait," Su Le guided him to the sofa before heading to her room to pack.
All the furniture in her room were all of very good quality. She used to think that Wei Chu was too extravagant since he had such good furniture in an apartment which he did not live in, but now, she knew that Wei Chu was not wasteful. He prepared all this furniture and electrical appliances just for her.
After she had finished packing, they headed out. The rain had worsened. Su Le stared at the rain and hummed, "Luckily, I don't need to go to work tomorrow. This weather is perfect for sleeping in."
Wei Chu shielded her from the rain as she got into the car, "When we're married, you can sleep in every day for as long as you want."
"Who wants to marry you?" Su Le felt her cheeks heat up. She tilted her head away and didn't look at Wei Chu's current expression.
Once they arrived at Wei Chu's home, Su Le took a bath and changed into her pajamas. There was already a laptop in the room she was going to stay in and the Wi-Fi was already set up as well. Wei Chu stood at the door with his arms crossed, "The bed covers and everything here is new. Let me know if you need anything else."
"I'm not picky," Su Le entered the room and saw Wei Chu was still standing by the door. She beamed, "Goodnight." Then, she shut the door with a bang and nimbly locked the door.
Wei Chu rubbed his nose, "Actually, I am a gentleman, so you don't need to worry that I'll turn into a wolf."
"An animal dressed in clothes wouldn't be obvious and it wouldn't be written on their faces." A light voice drifted out from the room.
Wei Chu silently walked back to his room. Even though he would occasionally act on impulse, with regards to situations like these, he was honorable. Su Le's actions really made his heart hurt.
Su Le, who was sitting on the bed, leaned against the headboard and was unaware of Wei Chu's current emotions. She was currently holding the laptop and chatting with her friends online happily while pretending to be offline in another chat with her editor. No matter what her editor said, Su Le faked that she really was not online, she was very busy, she didn't know anything that was going on.
In the group chat, the members were discussing the definition of a good man. In the end, there were quite a number of conditions. Su Le was surprised that Wei Chu matched most of the conditions. It made her realize that if she did not grasp him tightly, she would get electrocuted by lightning.
In the present society, women hated getting married but they did want to get married as well. Such conflicting views existed mainly because men were becoming more and more unreliable, but people did wish to have someone to accompany them for the rest of their life.
Shuang Shuang: Xiao Qi Jiu, you're actually online. The editor actually said that they wanted to kill you in the group chat today.
Qi Jiu: Actually, what you see is my soul. My body isn't here.
Shuang Shuang: Can you be any more shameless?
Qi Jiu: ( ⊙o⊙) What is shameless? Can it be eaten?
Shuang Shuang: Shamelessness at its peak.
Everyone agreed.
Love flowers not books: Don't you think that Qi Jiu is getting more and more annoying recently?
Shuang Shuang: Agreed
Love flowers not books: It's like she emitting a mood that women will get annoyed by. It really makes people want to beat her up.
Qi Jiu:[A slapped wooden fish]
A woman's intuition was very accurate at times like this. Su Le read the chat as some maidens in the group chat all came up with different possible reasons behind her changing like dating, marriage, winning the lottery, getting a promotion, finding money on the ground, migrating etc. All sorts of speculations were made. Su Le's hand that was on the keyboard paused for a moment before she typed a few words.
Qi Jiu: Congratulate me, girls. I'm in a relationship.
No matter how explosively the group reacted, Su Le closed down the chat with a clear conscience. She went to look through forums instead. She liked reading the slightly strange discussion forums as there were all sorts of mystical stories that would make her burst out laughing. And sometimes, these mythical stories could give her inspiration and explore different ideas.
After playing for a while, she heard Wei Chu knocking on the door. Su Le put the laptop down on the bedside table before getting up to open the door.
Wei Chu was standing there holding a cup of milk, "It's getting late, it's better to sleep early. Sleeping too late is not good for your health. Drinking some milk will help you fall asleep easily."
Su Le took the cup of milk. The temperature was just right; it wasn't cold and neither was it too hot. She glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it was already 11 pm. "You should also rest early."
"Alright, I'm going to rest now. We will be having fried eggs for breakfast tomorrow. There aren't many ingredients in the fridge. We'll go and buy some food to restock the fridge tomorrow, " Wei Chu reached out to rub Su Le's hair. His action was extremely gentle.
"Okay," Su Le smiled. Then, she drank some milk and watched Wei Chu leave before shutting the door again.
After getting back on the bed, Su Le looked at the laptop screen, which was still brightly lit. She reached over to shut the laptop and drank the rest of the milk before lying in bed, listening to the raindrops outside. She gradually fell asleep.