Chapter 42
Cheng Lydia never imagined that she would one day initiate a text to ask Gu William to meet her.
She wasn’t sure what the point of doing so was and what it would do, but sent the text message anyway.
Gu William hadn’t messaged her back, and she didn’t know if he would come or not.
It was rush hour, and Cheng Lydia gazed out the window at the traffic, waiting in silent rank.
Ten minutes later, Gu William appeared and the first thing he said after taking his seat was, “Ms Cheng must have asked me out for something big, right?”
Apparently, he was equally taken aback by Cheng Lydia’s unsolicited appointment.
He took off the coat he was wearing while surveying her with a suspicious gaze, the look as if she were a strange creature.
The place is an elegant and chic tea house, Cheng Lydia is not very familiar with making tea, and because she is a little nervous, she almost burned her hand.
Gu William had been watching from the moment she started making the tea, and eventually just couldn’t watch anymore and said, “Better let me do it.”
When he finished, he took the tea making tool from her hand and began to operate it.
His fingers were long and white, with well defined bones, from washing the tea, to washing the cups, to entering the boiling water … each of which he carried out slowly and skilfully and elegantly.
“Making tea is a work of art, don’t embarrass yourself if you can’t play, save yourself from burning yourself and tossing a good pot of tea.” Gu William handed her a cup of clear tea.
The tea is fragrant and refreshing.
Cheng Lydia swept him a look of some embarrassment as she took the cup of tea.
“Go ahead, what do you want from me.” Gu William lifted his clear tea to his nose and gave her a light sniff, lifting an eyebrow to look askance at her, “If you’re here to warn me about Chung Grace, it’s going to affect my tea drinking mood.”
“Nothing to do with Chung Grace.” Cheng Lydia took a sip of her clear tea and had some difficulty saying, “Would you think I’m ridiculous if I said I’m here because of that land west of the city?”
Yes, that’s what she’s here for, this thing that even she thinks is ridiculous.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.
“It is quite ridiculous.” Gu William lost his smile, “But I’m still willing to hear what you’re going to offer me for that land.”
Cheng Lydia shook her head, “Actually I don’t know, leaving Shen Ron, I have nothing.”
“You mean Shen Ron didn’t ask you to come?”
“I came on my own.”
“And rightly so.” Gu William laughed, “Shen Ron isn’t that much of a puller, especially in front of my Master Gu.”
When he finished, he leaned forward and looked at her steadily, “Cheng Lydia, don’t you hate me to the bone? Did you ask me out for a piece of land to prove to me how much you love Shen Ron and how much you want to help him get this piece of land?”
Cheng Lydia looked at him askance with a straight face, “The ground was lost from my hands, it has nothing to do with loving Shen Ron or not.”
“You still insist that I peeked at your files?”
“Isn’t it?”
“I peeked at your price, slapped the land down and then served it back to you unconditionally, do you think the world is that nice?” Gu William lost his smile and put down his cup of tea and stood up from his chair, “Not a good cup of tea at all today, but thank you and goodbye.”
He pushed back his chair and turned toward the door, and the moment he stepped out, Cheng Lydia suddenly raised her voice at his back and said, “What exactly does it take to give up the land?”
Gu William stopped, turned back, gazed at her with evil abandon, and said, “You may not be willing to say it.”
The glint of evil that made Cheng Lydia’s heart sink and her tone a few shades less firm, said, “As long as I can do it.”
Gu William wasn’t that easy to get rid of, she knew that before she decided to ask him out, and now that she saw his face full of ill will, she was even less sure of herself.
Gu William’s terms are just not something she can afford to give!
But Shen Ron has stated more than once that the only way to get his forgiveness is to get the land back, and how easy is it to get the land back? How easy is it to convince Gu William?
“Don’t worry, you can do it.” Gu William leaned over, bracing his hands on the arms of her chair, his forehead almost resting against hers, his breath brushing against her face with the faint scent of fresh tea, his light smile filling the room, “Stay with me for a day and a night, how about that?”
“Accompany to what extent?” Cheng Lydia asked mechanically.
“Eating, drinking, playing and sleeping with you, of course.”
“Are you that short of women, Gu William?” Cheng Lydia was so angry that she pushed him away from her heels with such force that Gu William’s body leaned back and braced his hands just on the tea-maker. The moment the tealight tilted, the hot tea poured down the back of his hand, and the immense pain caused him to cry out in pain and quickly withdraw his palms from the table.
The back of his white hand was instantly red.
Cheng Lydia was stunned for a moment, looking at the back of his injured hand, her anger instantly going halfway.
She hadn’t meant to hurt him, really hadn’t, though he was so all … evil.
“I’m sorry.” She responded, catching a bucket of mineral water in a cup and carefully pouring it over the back of his hand. Luckily the tea wasn’t more than a hundred degrees, and the back of his hand was only red through and not blistered.
She held his palm in one hand and kept cooling him down with cold water with the other until she felt it was okay, then she let go of his hand. When she looked up, she found him staring fixedly at herself, the gaze clearly full of deep love.
Had she misread it, Cheng Lydia asked herself mentally.
She and Gu William had only met a total of a few times, and each time they had met, it would not have been believable to her in any way to say that Gu William would fall in love with her because of it.
But if she didn’t love, how could she show that look to her?
She still couldn’t get back from her thoughts until Gu William left the teahouse.
In the evening, Shen Ron was late.
Cheng Lydia lies alone in bed, feeling lonely for the first time.
Maybe she’d gotten used to having Shen Ron around these days, and she’d started losing sleep these past few nights when he was gone.
Although she and Shen Ron had spent the previous days from open fights and all sorts of unpleasantness, they could still talk after all, and occasionally mock each other for jokes, which was much better than now.
Did she really have to get the land back before he would forgive her?
Cheng Lydia took her phone from the bedside table, tapped Gu William’s number, and sent the message, “Can I eat, drink, and play with you, not sleep with you?”
Twenty minutes later, Gu William’s message arrived late: “See you at the airport tomorrow morning at 7am.”
Airport …
Where was he taking her? A day and a night wasn’t that long, was it?
But did she have a choice?
Because The Shen Family was a little far from the airport, Cheng Lydia woke up at six o’clock the next morning, freshened up and went downstairs, the maids were busy cleaning, the sound of breakfast was coming from the kitchen, the old lady and Mrs. Shen were still awake.
“Where are you going so early in the morning, young lady?” A young maid named Amy asked politely.
Cheng Lydia, having long thought of an excuse, said unhurriedly, “A hospital urgently asked me to come over to take a car accident patient.”
“Oh, young lady take care on your way.”
“Hmm.” Cheng Lydia thought for a moment and said to Amy, “I may have to work the late shift tonight, so if I don’t come back, remember to tell the old lady and the youngest for me.”
“Okay.” Amy nodded.
Cheng Lydia finished her delivery and walked quickly out of the house, not even noticing a disinterested Ho Gina at the door of the restaurant watching herself go out.
Ho Gina watched Cheng Lydia walk out the door before quickly returning to her bedroom and dialing the familiar number with a look of emotion, “Ms. Ke, Cheng Lydia is out so early in the morning, looks like something is wrong … yes, a person … changed to a bag twice as big as usual, looks like she’s going away … OK, I’ll keep an eye out tonight …”
Cheng Lydia arrived at the airport just as the clock was pointing to seven o’clock.
She stood in the airport lobby and glanced around, not seeing Gu William, as it were, standing in the crowd of people coming and going and waiting.
The sweet female voice announces the flight information from time to time inside the radio, Cheng Lydia steadied the sunglasses on her face, which she deliberately wore from home in order to prevent meeting familiar people.
After all, she had been in the papers before, and what she was about to do was not something honorable, and if she was recognized by some sharp-eyed ‘acquaintances’, it could easily bring her new trouble.
Gu William was late in showing up and her mind was mixed, on the one hand wishing he wouldn’t come so she wouldn’t have to go with him for a day and a night in good conscience. On the one hand, she hoped he would show up as promised, because she needed his piece of land on the west side of town.
As her mind wandered, her right palm suddenly warmed and was held in someone’s hand.
She froze and turned her head to see Gu William, dressed in casual attire.
Gu William curved his lips to show her a charmingly light smile, “I didn’t think you’d come.”
“I’ll do what I say, and I hope you can keep your word as well.” Cheng Lydia didn’t move and wrenched her small hand out of his grasp.
“Of course.” Gu William retook her hand and said, “From this moment until seven o’clock tomorrow morning, you belong to me, so …” He tightened his grip on her fingers, “Remember who you are at this moment.”
With that, he pulled her in the direction of the security checkpoint.
“Hey, where are you taking me?” Cheng Lydia followed him quickly.
“Don’t worry, it won’t go very far.” Gu William twisted his head and said, “Get your ID out.”