Chapter 19

By the time Chen Xie arrived, our table was already covered in dishes. While waiting for her, everyone didn’t touch their chopsticks and chatted leisurely. Before long, Chen Xie came in with a thin scarf and a camel-colored coat. She donned a small smile while walking over to us, “I told you we should catch a meal next time. I’m not sure how long you had to wait for me here.” She first talked to Shu Qin, then after she finished her words, she turned her head and caught sight of Yu Haiqiao. Stunned, she asked, “Why are you here?”

Since I moved closer to Shu Qin, bringing along my bowl and chopsticks over, the space beside Yu Haiqiao was empty. Yu Haiqiao explained, “I was in junior high school with them.”

Chen Xie nodded in understanding, “Then shift a little bit inside.”

Yu Haiqiao obediently took his bowl and sat further inside, coincidentally becoming seated across from me. He then gave me a look.

Chen Xie sat down and removed her scarf and coat, naturally handing them to Yu Haiqiao, “Can you put my coat and scarf on the other side, thanks.”

Yu Haiqiao very obediently received her things and placed them beside him. Across him, I stroked my chin. Yu Haiqiao glanced at me and asked, “Do you want me to move your bag here as well?”

I smiled politely and replied, “Thank you but no need.”

Yu Haiqiao raised a brow and Chen Xie shifted her gaze away from him. She looked at me for a good while before realization hit her, “Shi Ran! Long time no see.”

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**

The moment everybody started using their chopsticks, Yang Xiongwei’s mischievousness started to rear his head and he asked Yu Haiqiao and Chen Xie cheekily, “Have you two been keeping in contact all this time?”

Chen Xie replied, “Yeah. We’ve been keeping in contact. When I was studying abroad, I’d go home every year for the New Years and would always grab a meal with him. After going to France and having not returned for many years, we didn’t meet up a lot but since I just returned recently, I’ve been inviting him out for meals but this big guy is so busy, it’s been difficult to set up a common time.”

Yang Xiongwei chuckled, “I heard Shu Qin say that this time you’re back here for good, is that right?” He even winked at Yu Haiqiao. This guy was actually trying to play wingman.

Chen Xie replied, “Yeah, I’m here for good. Nothing can beat home sweet home~”

Yan Xiongwei continued to play wingman, “Home is definitely the best. Being together with family is also quite nice. Yu Haiqiao is single at the moment, am I right?”

I turned to look at Shu Qin and leaned closer to whisper, “Is your husband’s hobby to play matchmaker for others?”

Shu Qin had yet to speak up when Yu Haiqiao suddenly smiled and asked me, “What are you two whispering about behind our backs?”

Chen Xie was originally having a good chat with Yang Xiongwei but upon hearing his words, they turned their sights on us. Shu Qin gently replied, “It’s nothing much. Do you really need to know about girl talk too? Seriously.” She then turned and showed me a helpless look that said ‘I also feel like my husband is such a busybody.’

I pursed my lips. Yang Xiongwei immediately shifted his question to me, his tone sounding a little careful, “Shi Ran is also single right now, right?”

I explained, “Nono. I was kidding with you the last time.”

I then caught Yu Haiqiao’s spine straightening from the corner of my eyes and he pretended to ask extremely sophisticatedly, “Didn’t Shi Ran get married a few years ago?”

Chen Xie: “Really? Married to who? Whoever married you must be a very lucky man.”

I first shot Yu Haiqiao a glance, then turned to look at Chen Xie sitting beside him, “Yeah. I have an open relationship with my husband. When we first got married, we agreed that we would mutually ignore each other. If we wanted to end the relationship to be with another person, we would just come out and say so.”

“…..”

“…..”

“…..”

“…..”

My words may not have been appropriate at this time and place as everybody turned quiet for a second. Shu Qin smoothed the matter over, “Is that so? I also know about this kind of marriage but I’ve never had any friends who were in one. Can I ask you some questions privately next time?”

I said, “Of course, you can.”

Chen Xie said, “I think this kind of relationship is quite nice. There’s no restriction, only freedom. You’re together because of love but once that has died down, you can be with another.”

I responded, “Yeah, that’s why I’ve been preparing for a divorce.”

As a person who has never let the atmosphere turn cold, I successfully created another awkward silence. I felt as if I was accumulating more experiences in life, one should really try out everything to have a more colorful life.

Yang Xiongwei then shifted the topic after I had expressed my views on marriage. He talked about his life starting from the mistakes he made in junior high all the way to his senior high life, in the middle, he even included little stories of how he got to know and fell in love with his wife.

Yu Haiqiao sat across from me and leaned against the sofa, his hands crossed in front of his chest. He appeared expressionless listening to his story.

Yu Haiqiao hasn’t really gotten genuinely angry in front of me a lot. He had always been very unpredictable and would often bicker with me. The only time I ever had seen him genuinely mad was when I had almost totalled his car. He scolded me fiercely, but after a few minutes, he recovered his composure and started to bicker with me again. At his moment, he sat expressionlessly across me with his arms crossed in front of his chest. By the looks of it, he looked a little unhappy.

I didn’t know what he was unhappy about and was too lazy to even care about him.

The more Yang Xiongwei talked, the more he started getting into his role as a matchmaker, trying to match Yu Haiqiao with Chen Xie. Shu Qin reminded him to control himself with a small smile and he pushed up his glasses and replied with an innocent “Ok”.

Yu Haiqiao then slowly spoke up, “I’m married. Chen Xie knows.”

Chen Xie piped up with an “Ah”. She was in the middle of eating as she said, “Yeah. He got married three years ago and notified me, but he didn’t tell me who his wife is. I thought he was trying to trick me because up until now, I haven’t seen his wife.”

Yang Xiongwei also exclaimed in surprise, “Ah. But in the group chat, you said…”

Yu Haiqiao raised the corner of his lips up, “It wasn’t true. I was just kidding.”

Yang Xiongwei hesitated for a while whereas Shu Qin hit the nail on the head and asked, “Your wife wouldn’t be Shi Ran, would it? ” She said before turning to set her sights on me.

“…” I was eating spare ribs at that moment, looking extremely innocent.

Yang Xiongwei was taken aback, “Shit, were you two playing me?!”

Chen Xie also looked dumbfounded in her seat. She looked at me, then turned to Yu Haiqiao, seemingly a little blank.

“…” I immediately felt like I was being a little too childish. Yang Xiongwei wasn’t even close to me, could he not take it seriously when I joked with him? I gathered my short hair and coughed, “I wasn’t.”

Yu Haiqiao looked at me.

Yang Xiongwei was still feeling indignant, “How much of a grudge do you have against each other? You haven’t changed at all since junior high!” He couldn’t seem to understand my relationship with Yu Haiqiao, his face putting a baffling expression that said ‘Why did you even bother getting married if you didn’t like each other, wouldn’t it have been better to use the taxi fare you used to go to the bureau to buy a lottery ticket and stand a chance to become a millionaire?’

Naturally, most of it was only my assumption, or rather, it was the line of thought I thought was going through his head. Because the bureau didn’t open on weekends, at that time, I had even asked for a few hours off work to take a taxi to go to the bureau to get the certificate printed. The taxi fare cost about 18.2 yuan and the driver took 19 yuan from me. After I had gotten my hands on the certificate, Yu Haiqiao then made his long dog-like speech and drove himself back to the company whereas I had to hail another taxi to get to work. Because of the red lights on the way, the taxi fare rose by two dollars, so in total, I had spent 39 yuan just to get the certificate.

What was the use of spending this much money? If I had at least bought milk tea with the money, I’d be a little happier and gain 2 kg of fat.

Yu Haiqiao didn’t look at me, his expression extremely gentle as he started explaining, “It’s nothing. We were just joking. We’ve always been joking around like this, we didn’t think we’d also pull you in.”

Chen Xie was sitting beside him and perhaps because she didn’t understand the part about having grudges against each other, she didn’t join in on this topic, “Why didn’t you tell us about getting married with Shi Ran!” She complained, turning to look at Yu Haiqiao then me. She pointed a finger at Yu Haiqiao and complained, “This guy is too unreliable, isn’t he? He got married with you but he still hid it. When he got married, I transferred him several thousand yen, saying that I wanted to see the wedding photos but he never let me have a look. This guy is so weird.”

I also gently explained, “We didn’t take any bridal photos when we got married since we didn’t want to waste our time.”

Chen Xie “ah”-ed in realization and clicked her tongue, “His WeChat feed is all about his work. I even asked him why he wasn’t sharing any of his happily married life and he ignored me. Seriously.”

I exclaimed, “Ah? Do you have to post it on your feed if you start dating and get married? What if you break up and get divorced, then you’d have to delete a lot of things. That’s just troublesome.”

Yu Haiqiao raised an eyelid across me and I saw him take out his phone from his pocket as if he had something to show someone. His thumb clicked on the screen a few times and a few minutes later, the phone in my bag vibrated. I looked at Yu Haiqiao and saw that he had already tucked his phone back in his pocket.

Yu Haiqiao didn’t look at me and simply turned to converse with Yang Xiongwei, “I heard Shi Ran say that you changed your name.”

Yang Xiongwei hemmed and hawed for a while, seemingly a bit distressed, “I even wanted to change it once more, but since I’m working, it isn’t too convenient.”

Yu Haiqiao chuckled.

Chen Xie asked me excitedly, “You grew up together since you were young right? I’m so jealous. No wonder you can accept having an open marriage. Then, what’s your relationship like right now?”

I slowly opened my mouth and said, “It’s that I recently fell in love with someone else…”

Yu Haiqiao stopped talking with Yang Xiongwei and looked at me, pretending that he didn’t hear, he asked, “What did you say?”

Before I could even say anything, Chen Xia poked him in the arm, “Aiya, let me change seats with you. I can’t talk to Shi Ran conveniently this way.” She said, while going around him and heading towards me. She placed her coat and scarf in the middle of her and Yu Haiqiao and excitedly asked me to continue, “And then? But, what exactly is an open marriage like?”

I casually fabricated, “He and I won’t restrict each other’s love life.”

Shu Qin sat in the middle and after listening in for a long time, decided to pitch in and professionally explain, “It’s just like dancing. A man and a woman would make up as dancing partners but occasionally, in the middle of the dance, you would switch partners. However, this wouldn’t affect their relationship as the original dance partners.”

I let out an “Oh” of realization on the inside.

Chen Xie continued to ask, “But what if you find a better partner while you’re exchanging partners?”

I silently nodded in my heart—— ‘What a good question.’

Shu Qin replied, “Since you and your partner sure have a free and equal relationship, you can tell him that you’ve found a partner that suits you more.”

Chen Xie nodded, then looked towards me, “Then you liking someone else means..”

Yu Haiqiao suddenly called me from beside her, “Shi Ran.”

I looked at him, “Yeah?”

“When you went out this morning, you told me to remind you to look at your phone at lunch, saying that your boss might send you an email at this time.” He said.

“…..”

I took out my phone from my bag and deleted all the ads and app notifications.I then opened my WeChat and found that Yu Haiqiao had sent me a message——What did you mean?

I typed back——Exactly what I said.

After pressing send, Chen Xie started questioning Yu Haiqiao, “Has Shi Ran told you that she fell in love with someone else? What about you? Do you have someone you like?”

I cast a glance at Yu Haiqiao.

Yu Haiqiao gave me a look before retracting his gaze. He then replied listlessly, “Of course,

KMH – TOC for advanced chapters [Complete]