Chapter 54

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If it were me, I would also be willing to sacrifice myself for love

It wasn’t long before the housekeeper brought the food up. The young master had already eaten, so she guessed it was for this young miss who had come to visit. Shen Wanying did not expect to be served such a sumptuous meal, so she became even more embarrassed. “I came here to visit a sick person, but I ended up troubling you.”

“Like I said before,” Huo Cheng responded, “there’s no need to stand on ceremony with me.”

She didn’t argue, only picked up her chopsticks and began eating. Huo Cheng sat and watched her. She was just sitting and eating quietly, yet she still looked so good.

During meal times at the Shen household, talking was discouraged, but her mother wasn’t there, so she made small talk with Huo Cheng. “The new materials are just some papers that we were told to finish over the past two days – I’ve marked them all out for you. Do complete them if you’re feeling up to it; we’ll be covering them in a later class.”

“Alright.”

“With your grades, if you can maintain the standard you’re at now, you’ll have no problem with the college entrance exams.” As she said this, she was struck by a sudden curiosity. “Huo Cheng, what do you want to study at university?”

“Finance, I guess.”

This answer was not at all surprising, many people who came from families like theirs ended up studying finance. “Right. After all, you’ll have to help out with the family business in the future.”

“Not just my family’s,” he said.

“Eh?”

He looked at her silently and smiled. In the future, he would be helping out with the Shen family’s business too.

“What about you, what do you want to study?” Huo Cheng asked.

“Well……” She said, “This is a secret, but I actually want to learn perfumery.”

He didn’t seem in the least surprised. He nodded and said, “That’s pretty good. Perfume is a very romantic subject.”

She was surprised by his words, but also a little discouraged: “The thing is, I don’t know if my mother will agree.” She thought it most likely that she would not agree.

“You can learn both.”

“Eh?” Shen Wanying looked at him.

Huo Cheng continued. “You can study both what you want, and what your mother wants.”

There were quite a few people who earned double degrees, and with Shen Wanying’s intelligence, it shouldn’t be too difficult for her to major in two subjects.

“That’s true.” She thought about it and sighed again. “But even if I study what I want, my parents only have one daughter. In the future, the affairs of the company will still fall to me.” She knew that her mother had had these plans for her for a long time, so she had never mentioned to her that she wanted to learn perfumery.

Huo Cheng studied her for a moment before speaking. “Not necessarily. You will become an excellent perfumer in the future, and the management of the Shen family business can be shared by your future husband.”

Shen Wanying froze. Her future…. husband?

It was strange, Huo Cheng had clearly only mentioned the word husband, and not that he would be her future husband, so why was her heart suddenly beating so fast?

She took a few bites of food to hide her face, waiting until she could face him with a normal expression.

Huo Cheng was a bit drowsy due to the effects of the medication. When Shen Wanying noticed his weary expression, she said to him, “You should sleep first.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll stay here with you.”

“Don’t you have class this afternoon?” He asked.

“I’ve taken the day off, I don’t have to be back so soon,” she replied.

“Mm, alright then.” He obediently laid down and turned his head to look at Shen Wanying. She glared at him. “Sleeping involves your eyes being closed”

Huo Cheng smiled faintly and said teasingly, “Then can you read me a bedtime story?”

“…… Okay.” She agreed, graciously.

That expression, that tone of voice….. he really wasn’t giving her any say in the matter.

She selected a copy of Wilde’s fairy tales from the small shelf next to the bed and sat down in front of Huo Cheng.

“Wilde?”

“Mmhm.” Shen Wanying opened the book. The first story was the famous The Nightingale and the RoseThe Nightingale and the Rose is a short story written by Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and playwright. “Can I read The Nightingale and the Rose?”

“Okay.”

She read in the soft, even tone she used when reading in literature class. She was often called upon by her literature teacher to read the text, so she had practical experience in this area. She read splendidly; from her lips, the story seemed almost like a beautiful fairy tale.

“Do you like Wilde’s stories?” Huo Cheng asked after she finished reading.

“Not his love stories,” She told him.

“Why?”

“It always seems like the love stories he writes carry a sense of desperate sacrifice.” Like this one, for example, The Nightingale and the Rose. The girl wanted a red rose, so the nightingale dyed the rose red with her own blood.

Huo Cheng was silent for a while. “I do understand somewhat. If it were me, I would also be willing to sacrifice myself for the person I love.”

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T/N: Big thanks to BrightEyes once again for her help on this chapter as well!! Oh my goodness, I love The Nightingale and the Rose. I first read it as a child and it was so sad and horrible and beautiful, and his descriptions of the scene, her song, so vivid in my mind. Y’all should go look it up and read it if you so wish. That aside, wheewww that last line gave me shivers. We know, Huo Cheng. We know.

And that is all, thank you for reading and for coming on this wild ride with me so far! If you’re interested in advance chapters, let us know over on Discord, the link is up in the header (: I hope you’re having as much fun as I am. See you in the next chapter!

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