Chapter 29

Yang Chen walked inside the house and saw Ruoxi and Cai Yan chatting with each other.

"Sigh...Ruoxi, it's about time I go since it's pretty busy over there at the station with these recent bank robberies." Cai Yan sighed tiredly.

"Alright, be careful."

Cai Yan smiled gently and nodded before heading toward the door. When she saw Yang Chen enter, she stopped to look and glare at him.

'Why would my sister personally come and have to see this guy? Is he related to her secret line of work? If he is, then I swear I'll find out his secret!' Thought Cai Yan before she continued walking past him and left the house.

Yang Chen ignored her glare and went to sit on the couch, but noticed Ruoxi was staring at him.

"Ruoxi?"

Ruoxi had a complicated expression before she decided to just a say what's been in her mind since yesterday.

"Yang Chen...about yesterday...are you still upset?"

Yang Chen was a bit surprised and thought, 'Did she think I was angry about our argument? Well, I didn't like the way she kept acting like my boss or something so she might have misinterpreted me.'

Yang Chen then shook his head, "No, I'm not upset."

Although Ruoxi was glad Yang Chen wasn't angry, she still felt awful about how she treated him.

"Yang Chen...can I explain, why I acted the way I did?" Ruoxi asked softly as she stared straight at his eyes.

Yang Chen was a bit confused at why would she want to explain herself to him but still nodded.

Ruoxi slightly smiled before she sat next to him on the couch. Suddenly the atmosphere around her turned gloomy.

"My grandmother...from a young age she taught me to never be dependant on a man. I never thought too much about it since I was a child, but one day she told me the reason for her ways of raising me. It turns out the man she loved had abandoned her when she was pregnant with my fath..Lin Kun. He also revealed to already be married to another woman simply because he was part of the 'great Lin family'."

Ruoxi couldn't help but clench her fists and gnash her teeth in anger as she was talking about her supposed 'grandfather'.

"After he revealed he was married, he never took the initiative to contact my grandmother ever again. My grandmother was hurt, but she still had a baby on the way so she abandoned her sentiment and focused on her child."

Ruoxi then turned toward Yang Chen and couldn't help but laugh in a self-deprecating way.

"I'm pathetic, aren't I? Even after I said that my grandmother raised me to never rely on a man, I still decided to get married. Why...simply because I chose to rebel against Lin Kun and act like a child."

Yang Chen looked straight at Ruoxi's and said, "I don't think you're pathetic."

"Huh?" Ruoxi was quite surprised to hear Yang Chen say that.

"I said, I don't think you're pathetic." Yang Chen then smiled, "You didn't want your fate to be left to others. If anything, you should be proud of not letting yourself be used."

Ruoxi's heart couldn't help but start to quicken as she saw Yang Chen's smile and heard his words.

A beautiful smile started to surface on her lips, making Yang Chen captivated.

'This woman sure is extremely beautiful, especially when she smiles like this.' Thought Yang Chen as he came off from his daze.

"Will...you excuse me, I have to head to my study room now," Ruoxi said as the atmosphere around her turned somewhat cheery before she headed upstairs.

Yang Chen chuckled at her behavior before he got up from the couch and headed toward his car.

It was almost noon so he was going to go pick up Jingjing so they could go buy furniture for her new apartment.

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Yang Chen arrived at Jingjing's school and waited outside his car since he saw her making his way to him.

Jingjing was wearing a pale yellow dress, with a white handbag. Her face was also adorned by makeup, making her look lovely cute.

"Hi, big brother Yang," Jingjing greeted as he was quite happy since she hasn't seen him in a few days.

"Hey, Jingjing. You ready to go?" Yang Chen replied as he smiled a bit.

Jingjing nodded happily before they both got in the car and headed to the furniture mall.

While on the road, Jingjing suddenly asked, "Big brother Yang, do you know why Department Head Jiang acts so respectful toward me, every time he sees me?"

Yang Chen smirked, "Does he now?"

"Yes, it's frankly weird seeing him act that way," Jingjing said a bit awkwardly.

Yang Chen chuckled lightly before they kept driving toward their destination.

When they arrived at the mall, they headed toward the sofa department since Jingjing said she was lacking one.

When the sales lady approached them and introduced them to the high-class leather sofas, Jingjing was dumbstruck over the prices.

"Jingjing, let's buy this one." Yang Chen said as he pointed at a white leather couch.

When Jingjing saw the price, she carefully tugged on Yang Chen's sleeve, "Big brother Yang, let's go to a smaller shop. These sofas are too expensive."

"Then I'll just pay for it."

Jingjing firmly shook her head, "I'm sorry Big brother Yang, but I can't keep bothering you with money problems."

Yang Chen was confused, "Money problems? But this one isn't that expensive."

"I know it might not seem expensive to you big brother Yang, but to me, it will cost 3 months full of work paycheck." Jingjing was adamant about not taking Yang Chen's money.

"But you guys shouldn't be lacking in money since I took care of that."

"Big brother Yang...why did you offer us so much money?" Jingjing had always wanted to know this question.

"Well, I made you guys suffer from the whole Chen Dehai situation. So I wanted you to have no problems in the future." Yang Chen explained.

Jingjing smiled gently and said, "Big brother Yang, I know you want to help us and I'm happy that you thought about my future, but we didn't need all that money."

Yang Chen sighed and couldn't help but silently agree with her. Now that he thinks about it, he has a problem with always solving all the troubles for the people that he cares about. I mean who can blame him, he just doesn't want the people that he cares for to suffer.

Yang Chen smiled warmly before he patted her on the head, "Alright, let's go to a smaller shop."

Jingjing smiled happily before they both headed to a different store.

After about an hour of searching for a sofa, Jingjing finally found the perfect one for her with an affordable price range. She would then have it delivered to her apartment in the coming days.

Yang Chen then drove Jingjing toward her apartment. Her apartment building was rather old, but it wasn't run down. The security installations in the surroundings were also done well.

They also saw someone standing in front of the building, making Jingjing surprised before getting off the car. Yang Chen also seeing who it was, got off the car in order to greet this person.

This person was Old Li. He had a cigarette in his hand as he had been silently smoking by himself, seemingly worried about something.

"Dad...why are you here..." Jingjing softly greeted as she approached Old Li.

Old Li sighed in relief as he saw Jingjing, "I came to take a look since I was worried about you." He then turned toward Yang Chen and smiled kindly.

"Little Yang, thank you for looking after my daughter."

Yang Chen smiled a bit, "No problem."

Old Li then looked toward Jingjing and asked in an aggrieved tone, "Are you finally going to explain why you suddenly moved out?"

"Dad...I..." Jingjing couldn't say anything.

Old Li then decided to ask another question.

"Is this about your mother?"

Jingjing didn't respond, but she also didn't defend her mother.

Old Li seeing this, got the confirmation he needed before he turned to Yang Chen and smiled.

"Little Yang, sorry about troubling you two, I'll take my leave now."

He then left walking towards his house with a dejected atmosphere.

Jingjing eyes turned slightly red as she saw her father's lonely and dejected back.

"Jingjing, is it ok like this?" Yang Chen suddenly asked, startling her.

"I don't...know"

Yang Chen sighed, before he patted her on the head while smiling, "Sigh...well whatever you decide, just make sure you don't regret it."

Jinjing slightly smiled before she nodded.

"Mn."

Jingjing then went inside her apartment while Yang Chen got back in his car.

Suddenly Yang Chen's phone rang and noticed it was Liu Mingyu.

"Yes?" Yang Chen asked as he answered the phone.

"Yang Chen, are you busy right now? I just recently go off from work and wondered if we can have that scheduled meal?" Asked Liu Mingyu in a hopeful tone.

"No, I don't have anything planned right now so sure. Do you want to go pick you up?"

Liu Mingyu was quite happy, "Yes, if that isn't too much to ask."

"It's not, I'll be over there in a bit."

They both then hung up and Yang Chen headed over to Yu Lei to pick up Liu Mingyu.

(AN: Some development between MC and Ruoxi before their cras...*cough* I mean blossom in their relationship. Please don't stone me.🙏 As I said, Ruoxi doesn't know Yang Chen has a lover so there will be a hurdle in their relationship. Ruoxi, of course, won't accept it since this is her character but I will work on that in future chaps.)