Chapter 3: First Meeting

When one’s most cherished possession is snatched away, even a small coward would do everything possible to get it back.

Cen Ning stood there, not crying wantonly as the group of children had thought, but when she gazed at their backs, her eyes were indeed red.

She was too unfamiliar with this place. After they left, she didn’t even know where to find them.

Go home and tell her mom? But Wei Pinfang hated the camera so much that she would never be willing to get it back for her.

Grandpa Yan? She believed that he definitely would be willing to help her, but unfortunately, grandpa had went somewhere else yesterday and probably wouldn’t be back this week.

Cen Ning’s brain became a mess, after deleting and subtracting, only Yan Xingzhi remained.

Before leaving, the girl named Xue Xiaoxiao said that Yan Xingzhi didn’t like her, so he couldn’t possibly help her.

She also knew that Yan Xingzhi didn’t like her, because few people in this world did.

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“Rd ycswv vball eyup.”

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The moon behind the dark clouds faintly appeared, and the moonlight shone through the heavy obstacles, elongating his shadow. Cen Ning silently followed behind him, repeatedly struggling with the question, “Should I or should I not stop him.”　

She was afraid of him, but she had to force herself to get close to him.

After walking for a while, Cen Ning saw him turning into an open clearing. There were many sports equipment in the open space. She saw him turn over a few times and go up the dark green horizontal bar.

He had his back turned away from her, so she didn’t know what he was doing. She thought he probably came out after dinner to relax.

So she mustered up her courage and walked towards him.

“Um…” Cen Ning finally walked to his side. She raised her head and looked at Yan Xingzhi sitting high up.

With this glance, she finally saw what he was doing. He had one hand on his left knee casually, a cigarette sandwiched between his index and middle fingers in his other hand.

“……”

“…………”

“Why are you here?” After a weird silence, Yan Xingzhi spoke first.

Cen Ning was silent, and then took a deep breath: “I have, I have something to ask you, for help.”

“Old Gao is at home, if there is something missing you can go and tell him–” HIs voice paused, because he saw the little girl standing on the ground, clearly trembling, he furrowed his eyebrows, and asked, “Is there something that only I can do?”

Cen Ning nodded affirmatively: “You said that if I have anything that I cannot resolve, that I can, I can come find you.”

Yan Xingzhi’s gaze was still cold and indifferent, but he came to remember that he had indeed said this, so he jumped off the bar and leaned to the side casually: “Say then, what’s the matter.”

Cen Ning took a step back unconsciously. She glanced at the spark of light at his fingertips and said softly: “My camera was taken, taken away by someone, and I want to get it back.”

“Camera?” He said in a puzzled manner, “Who took your camera?”

Cen Ning thought for a while, and said the girl’s name: “Xue Xiaoxiao.”

“Xiaoxiao? You are familiar with those little kids now.”

“No, no, I don’t know her,” Cen Ning was very nervous, and she kept stumbling over her words, “They, took away, my camera.”

“That camera is very important?”

Cen Ning immediately nodded: “The only thing, my father, left for me.”

Yan Xingzhi’s remained calm and collected, his expression was still cold, but looking at her face full of hope, his heart softened a little. He remembered his grandfather saying that the girl’s father died…died on the road to Tibet.

“Why did she take your camera?”

Cen Ning shook her head, but after thinking about it, she responded, “She said, I should, move away.”

Yan Xingzhi was not ignorant to how annoying those bunch of kids led by Xue Xiaoxiao could be. He also immediately understood the situation after Cen Ning spoke. Maybe they had heard some news from somewhere, so they came to Cen Ning to assert their dominance.

Yan Xingzhi: “Understood, but… this kind of thing doesn’t seem to be in the scope of what I should help you with.”

Cen Ning was taken aback, somewhat at a loss.

Yan Xingzhi briefly curled his lips: “Or you can keep talking, if you can persuade me, then I’ll help you.”

The moon came out from behind the clouds, and the moonlight fell upon the ground, also caressing his face. He looked at her without much care, and she mustered up the courage to look back at him.

One tall and the other short, the two lines of sight intersected in the air.

No one spoke for a long time, Cen Ning thought about it for a long time, and finally said, “They say, I am your, wife.”

“……”

With both hands tightly tugging in front of him, she looked at him with a sense of eager hope and ignorant innocence, “Then, can you, back me up.”

Facing Yan Xingzhi’s overtly stunned expression, Cen Ning immediately said, “Can you back me up, even if you don’t like me? Just, just this time, can you?”

There were a few seconds of silence in the open space, suddenly, a low chuckle came from Yan Xingzhi..

Originally, the corners of his mouth had been raised slightly, but now he really was laughing.

Cen Ning stood in front of him nervously, listening to the laughter that seemed to echo from his chest. In this moment, her mind came to think, this was the first time she had seen him laugh, the way he laughed… it was so handsome.

Yan Xingzhi really did find it interesting. He had imagined countless reasons she could come up with, but he didn’t expect her to say this matter so directly. He shook off the cigarette ashes and said while regaining a bit of his composure: “Little kid, do you know what a wife is.”

Cen Ning: “I’m, not, a little kid.”

Yan Xingzhi raised his eyebrows slightly, reached out his hand to gauge her height, and smiled: “If you’re not a kid, then what are you, huh?”

Cen Ning frowned: “I will, grow up.”

Yan Xingzhi laughed again: “Oh, you will grow up.”

“I, I really will, grow up!”

Yan Xingzhi raised the corners of his lips. He was amused by her dumb and cute look. He stretched out a hand and patted her on the top of her head: “Okay, you will grow up well.”

Saying this, he passed by her and walked in the other direction.

Cen Ning turned around: “Hey, you…”

“If you want your camera, come here at one o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”

“Ah?”

“Don’t understand?”

Cen Ning’s eyes lit up: “Understood!”

She actually wanted to say thank you again, but Yan Xingzhi stopped in his tracks, and suddenly turned around: “Also, this—” Yan Xingzhi raised the hand holding the cigarette, “Keep this a secret.”

Cen Ning was dazed for a second, and then nodded quickly: “Okay!”

Cen Ning never imagined that Yan Xingzhi would really help her, the moment he nodded, she was so happy that her heart almost burst out. At the same time, she also felt that Yan Xingzhi no longer seemed so hard to get close to. At least in this situation where he told her to keep his ‘smoking’ a secret, she felt that he was also a little more ‘ordinary.’

After tossing and turning all night, she finally got through to the next day.

After eating, Cen Ning kept waiting for the time to come, seeing that it had just reached 12:50, she rushed out of the small building.

The open clearing was not too far away, there were already many people there when Cen Ning had arrived.

A group of small children sat on the side to play, and Yan Xingzhi was playing basketball on the basketball court next to them.

After Cen Ning approached, the first person to see her was Xue Xiaoxiao. She originally sat on the edge to watch the older brothers play, but when she saw Cen Ning, she immediately became angry.

“Hey, why did you come here? Say something, why haven’t you left yet. You didn’t listen to what I said, did you?” Xue Xiaoxiao stood up and looked at Cen Ning in a dissatisfied manner.

Xue Xiaoxiao’s voice was clear and prominent. When she spoke, all the players who were not playing looked over from beside them.

Cen Ning was very uncomfortable with the sight of so many people who were either watching the drama or looking confused, but she had a clear purpose today, so she did not flinch.

She ignored Xue Xiaoxiao, instead, looking at Yan Xingzhi.

The latter was withdrawing from the field. He walked to the rest area next to him, picked up the bottle of mineral water on the ground, took a few sips and sat down on the stairs casually.

His forehead was slightly wet, he suddenly raised his eyes to look at her, his expression a little sharp.

“Did you listen to me, who asked you to come here, you—”

“Xiaoxiao, what are you doing.” An older girl next to her pulled her away.

Xue Xiaoxiao turned around: “Sister Peiyan, she is Cen Ning.”

Meng Peiyan was taken aback for a moment, and subconsciously glanced at Yan Xingzhi. The latter didn’t say a word, he just threw the water aside with a bang. The sound wasn’t even loud, but it made people feel inexplicably tense.

“Come here.” Suddenly, Yan Xingzhi spoke.

There was no beginning or end to this sentence, no one knew who he was talking to.

“What are you doing standing there?” Yan Xingzhi raised his eyes, and now, he looked at Cen Ning accurately, “Come here.”

Pound, pound pound.

Tang Zheng stopped hitting the ball, just letting it bounce on the ground up and down. His gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them, and then he ran to the side to find a position – it was a standard spectator posture.

Cen Ning secretly took a breath, lifted her feet and walked over.

“Your timing is very accurate.” Yan Xingzhi glanced at the seat beside him, “Sit down.”

Cen Ning went ‘okay’ and sat down obediently.

“Eh, what’s the situation?”

“Who is this little girl?”

“Hey, are you from the last century? You are so uninformed. Isn’t this the…little guest from the Yan family.”

Little guest, what he said was really tactful.

Xue Xiaoxiao became angry: “Brother Xingzhi, why are you—”

“Xiaoxiao, go back and get it.”

Xue Xiaoxiao was taken aback: “What?”

Yan Xingzhi pursed his lips slightly, his eyes gave one chills: “Her camera, bring it back to her immediately.”

“Brother Xingzhi!” Xue Xiaoxiao pointed at her in disbelief, “Why are you helping her, I’m just helping you!”

“Who wanted you to help me?” He leaned back, putting his hands on the stone steps, raising his eyes slightly, “Your reason for bullying is quite fresh.”

Xue Xiaoxiao felt the hairs behind her back stand up after being stared at like this, and her voice became weak: “I didn’t bully her.”

“In that case, now, go back and get it back immediately.”

“I……”

“Xiaoxiao.” Yan Xingzhi cut off her sentence, and said dully, “You can bully people¹TL’s note:it is not okay to bully people my friends!, but if you bully my people, do you know the consequences?”

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The author has something to say:

The boss says: if you want to die, charge forward!!!

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[Translator’s Note: ML going gangsta mode to protect our cute little FL keke! By the way, this novel also has an audio drama, if you want details on how to listen to it, I’ll post some info on my Ko-fi (and maybe something special too!)]