CH 90

What do you want?!

Inside the villa, Rong Heng was seated on the sofa. In front of him were three young women. His brows furrowed. He was truly unaccustomed to other people’s gazes of scrutiny, as though they wanted to strip him bare.

But he also knew that these three people must be Song Yuan’s close friends, so he restrained himself and didn’t lash out.

Song Yuan tried to play dead, but Xie Ya and the others clearly weren’t planning to let her go. “Yuanyuan, won’t you introduce us?”

The reason why people could be friends had to be that they had something in common. All four of them were members of the Good Looks Association, and they also knew each other well. With one look, they knew that this person was exactly Song Yuan’s type.

What was Song Yuan’s type? She liked the type of handsome guy who looked intelligent. This white-haired handsome man was clearly an elite man in society, his every gesture giving off a noble air.

Song Yuan knew that Rong Heng wasn’t used to these kinds of occasions. Afraid he’d be uncomfortable and afraid that his cold disregard would ruin the atmosphere, she introduced, “This is my friend, Xie Heng. The xie for giving thanks, the heng spelled with the xing and wang characters1. I’m not lying to you, he’s really busy with work and has to go back now. His driver’s still waiting for him.”

Driver?

Zhang Man was more perceptive. She worked at a luxury goods purchasing business in H City, and her occupation gave her sharp eyes. She swept a glance over Rong Heng’s clothes and watch and made calculations in her heart. It seemed this friend of Yuanyuan’s was a rich second generation. She took out her phone from her pocket and quickly searched up the name Xie Heng. Technology in modern society was very developed; so long as this person went online, he’d definitely leave behind some information. When the search result came out, Zhang Man looked at the displayed results, then incredulously looked back up at the person sitting before her…

She tentatively asked, “Er, Mr. Xie, if I may ask, do you and the Xie Heng of the Xie family have the same first and last name?”

Rong Heng disliked talking to strangers, but he looked at Song Yuan’s nervous look and guessed that she was afraid of ruining the atmosphere or causing her friends to feel awkward. In fact, once he confirmed that the “young man” who took a photo with Song Yuan was a woman, he felt much more relaxed. In a good mood, he answered in a genial tone, “It’s not that we have the same name. I am Xie Heng.”

Zhang Man sucked in a cold breath.

Everyone had been friends for many years–just a look at Zhang Man’s expression, and Xie Ya and Tang Shi knew that something was up. The three of them exchanged glances. Finally, Song Yuan stood up. “It’s pretty late now. He’s still busy, so I’ll send him out. There’ll be a chance to eat together next time.”

Xie Ya and Tang Shi were unwilling to let go of this opportunity. After all, it was obvious that this Mr. Xie had something going on with Yuanyuan.

Zhang Man grabbed the two of them before they could urge him to stay and politely bade farewell. “En, okay, then we won’t waste your time, Mr. Xie.”

As soon as Song Yuan and Rong Heng left the house and the door closed, Xie Ya piped up. “What’s wrong? Does this Mr. Xie have some kind of background? I didn’t even get to ask him what kind of relationship he has with Yuanyuan.”

Zhang Man handed her phone to them. “See for yourself. If you have any questions, you can wait for Yuanyuan to come back.”

Song Yuan followed Rong Heng out of the house and heard him whisper, “Let’s go.”

Although it was a mistake on his part, he had come all the way here. He didn’t want to just see her face and leave right away. He wanted to spend time alone with her. Even if it was in winter at night, with a cold wind blowing, he was willing.

Song Yuan also had something she wanted to tell him, so she nodded in agreement.

Thinking about it now, he must have seen her Moments and had a misunderstanding when he saw her photo with Tang Shi. Blame herself for not saying it clearly in her Moments… as soon as this thought crossed her mind, she froze. Why did she have to say it clearly? Why was she afraid of his misunderstanding?

“You saw my post in my Moments?” Song Yuan pursed her lips, her nose flushed red from the wind. “But the question you asked me earlier, I still want to answer it. I don’t have anyone I like right now, but I’m still young, and I may meet someone I like in the future. I think that… you should accept this. Just as I accept that you’ll have a girlfriend and a wife in the future.”

Rong Heng greatly cherished this opportunity to be alone with her.

It was just that he didn’t want to hear the words she was saying. After a moment of silence, he said, “I also thought about it on my way here, what I should do if you said you had someone you liked. Actually, I don’t know what I would do.”

And he didn’t want to think about it.

Today was an unexpected mishap, but it was also a false alarm.

Maybe there were people in this world who, when their loved one fell for another person, could calmly accept it and even give their blessings, but he could never be such a saint.

“If it were in ancient times, with your personality, you would kill that person, and I would lose my freedom, only able to see you every day,” Song Yuan said quietly. “But it’s not the same now. You must also know that this place is not the Great Ye dynasty. You’re not the emperor with the power to kill anyone anymore. Do you think that I can only be with you in my lifetime?”

This was Rong Heng.

He merely pretended to be good, only hoping that she could turn back and stay by his side as before. But the arrogance and indifference in his bones had never changed.

“Yes,” he answered solemnly.

“You’re not going to hide it?” Song Yuan puffed out a laugh. “I knew you wouldn’t change your temper.”

“Then what about you. Can you really accept me being with someone else?” Rong Heng asked. “Don’t say you can accept such things. Ask yourself carefully–the reason why you’re able to say all this so calmly now, it’s because you’re confident I won’t fall in love with someone else, isn’t it?”

Song Yuan knew Rong Heng, and Rong Heng knew Song Yuan just as well.

Song Yuan lowered her head, saying with a smile, “You’re saying I’m confident I have the upper hand2?”

Rong Heng didn’t speak.

Maybe he thought so, maybe not.

“I’m not going to argue with you anymore. I’m not interested in thinking about that kind of thing right now. Not with you or with other people. Right now I just want to go back to B City, work hard, and let Rong Ting study well. Can you understand?” Song Yuan sighed. “I don’t know if I can give my blessing for you to be with others, but I definitely find it acceptable, and I can only accept it. One advantage of modern society is that most marriages aren’t arranged marriages3. It’s not a sacred imperial decree where I must marry you. When we marry, we go to the Civil Affairs Bureau. Do you know what the Civil Affairs Bureau is? I need to willingly4 bring my household registration and ID card; as long as I’m not willing, no one can force me.”

Rong Heng stopped and looked in her direction. “You don’t need to accept it or give your blessings. I can answer you now: I won’t be together with other people. You can rest assured on this point.”

What ‘rest assured’?

Song Yuan felt that she and Rong Heng were clearly on different wavelengths. “What you mean is, only if you like someone else can I like someone else, right?”

Rong Heng frowned. “I said I won’t like someone else.”

“But you can’t be dead-set on me in this life, right?” Song Yuan was puzzled. “Like last time, when your dad in name introduced you to a blind date. You can’t avoid this kind of thing. Since you’ve accepted Xie Heng’s identity and status, you have to live in his place. You have to return to Xie Heng’s life, not be Rong Heng under Xie Heng’s identity.”

She indeed couldn’t outtalk him.

Every time, he’d spin her around in circles, just like now. She’d clearly said they should live their respective lives and wish each other well. As long as it didn’t disrupt the other person’s life, they must accept the possibility that the other party would fall for someone else and find new happiness. And as a result, while talking, the meaning changed again.

She could even guess what he was going to say next. He’ll definitely say he promises to never have blind dates with another person ever again…

Too hard. It was too hard to persuade an emperor who had grown up in an environment of deception5 and intrigue since young.

If you talked to him without strong logic, you’d be easily swayed by him.

So she cut in ahead of him and said, “What I mean is, everyone has their own responsibilities. You’ve become Xie Heng…”

He definitely had to take on the responsibilities of a wealthy family’s heir. He couldn’t just eat and not work all the time, right?

When men and women pondered over problems, they indeed would not be thinking in the same direction. Rong Heng thought back on Mrs. Xie’s words. For the middle-aged woman who lost her son, the husband was no longer a husband, but an enemy. What happened with Xie Yanjun was hard to say. As for Elder Xie, he was just a person for whom a day lived was another day less.

Rong Heng thought for a while and said, “The person who can be the head of the Xie family may be gone in two years. For now, no one will arrange that kind of thing for me again.”

When she heard what he said, Song Yuan looked at him with a look of horror and said sharply, “What do you want to do? It’s illegal to kill people here! Hiring a hitman is also illegal!!”

[1] This is just a way of indicating which characters are used for Rong Heng’s name. For Rong Heng’s given name, Song Yuan is explaining how to spell/write the character heng (珩)–a xing character (行) next to the wang (王) character (shoutout to my irl friend for explaining to me <3)

[2] 有恃无恐: secure in the knowledge that one has backing

[3] 盲婚哑嫁: something like “blind and mute marriages,” where both the word for a man taking a wife and a woman being married off are used in the phrase

[4] 心甘情愿: delighted to (do something)

[5] 尔虞我诈: lit. you hoodwink me and I cheat you; mutual deception

Cheese: rong heng dodging the topic of finding other partners like neo dodging bullets in the matrix (does that reference age me)