—————-
By the time Su Le and Wei Chu left, it was already four in the afternoon, right before Xiao Yao got into a car to leave. She stuffed many celebratory sweets into Su Le’s hand and explained that it was for Su Le to get more into the celebratory atmosphere, as well as to quickly get married. Su Le was grateful for the sweets but she ignored the part about marriage entirely.
On the motorway, the car was moving smoothly ahead. While Su Le rested on her seat, she could not stop herself from letting out a yawn. As she observed Wei Chu, who had his eyes constantly on the road, Su Le forgot about one of the safety rules and that one should not talk to the driver when the vehicle is moving. “Who’d ever think that you and Xiao Yao were actually relatives. The world truly is small.”
“It’s really not that big,” said Wei Chu as he earnestly stared ahead, “Some people after many twists and turns would still be able to see each other. That’s called fate.”
“Even fate is split between good and bad,” Su Le shifted into another position in her seat as she thought about what Xiao Yao said a few days ago that she would introduce her cousin to her. Su Le wanted to laugh. If Wei Chu was someone who takes interest in just about anyone, then there would sure to be a long list of exes.
“The heavens may decides on your fate, but whether it’s good or bad depends on how you handle it,” Seeing that Su Le was yawning frequently, he said, “You can take a nap for a while if you’re tired. I’ll wake you up when we arrive.”
“It’s nothing,” Su Le shook her head, “It’ll be boring to drive without company. I’ll keep you company so choose any topic you want to talk about.”
Wei Chu took a quick peek towards Su Le and, when saw that she seemed to be in a good mood, he quickly put his sight back onto to road. “What do you want talk about?”
Su Le pondered on it for while, “This question is slightly difficult.” Males generally liked talking about the economy, shares investment, and real estate but she had little to no interest in these topics.
“If you don’t mind, how about talking about your childhood?” Once Wei Chu said that, he felt he had crossed the line. He did want to know about Su Le’s past but he knew he shouldn’t have asked her so directly. After all, as a child of a single parent family, they were bound to experience things that other children wouldn’t and may still suffer from it.
“My childhood?” Su Le didn’t really mind and she went to recall her past, “When I was young, I was a lot like a boy. I liked going to the yard with the boys to play with fake swords and guns. I was even the boss of that group but everyone has went on their separate ways now just to earn a living and working themselves half death.”
Recalling how Su Le easily beat up Zhuang Wei, Wei Chu completely believed that the young Su Le was able to become the leader in a group of kids, “It seems you were amazing as a child.”
“At the beginning, those kids started bullying me, but after I beat them up, they became much more compliant. ‘Might is right’, this phrase is very reasonable.” Su Le couldn’t help but smile as she remembered her childhood and how she took some playmates with her to stir up trouble.
Because Wei Chu did not turn around around again, he missed the smile on Su Le’s face. He thought that those kids only bullied Su Le because she didn’t have a father. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. It was after a while did he speak, “Those kids deserved to be beaten up for bullying others.”
Su Le laughed when she saw his serious expression, “I wouldn’t have guessed that you would also choose to use violence.”
Wei Chu was only relieved when he did not hear a hint of dejection in Su Le’s voice, “I rarely fought when I was young. Cultured people would use words to solve conflicts.”
“Aren’t you just implying that I’m not cultured in a roundabout way?” Su Le raised her brows, “Senior Wei Chu, ah. You’re becoming more and more nasty. Right now, the radiant image that I originally had of you is all gone.”
“We’re not even layering a buddha with gold so why do I have so much radiance? For lighting up lights?” Wei Chu turned the steering wheel, “Also you haven’t seen me in university before and neither are you my employee so when have you ever seen my so-called radiant figure?”
“I just heard some rumours,” Su Le expressed her deep repentance, “I feel remorseful over my shallowness. As expected, things such as rumours are not trustworthy.”
Hearing Su Le’s mocking tone, Wei Chu did not mind because, to him, the so-called ‘elite’ image does not mean anything, at least not in the face of love. After all, he is the same as everyone else, just as sincere, just as fearful, and just as anxious.
“It’s best if you don’t believe them,” Wei Chu smiled. After driving for quite some time, they were soon stuck in a traffic jam and stopped behind a long queue of vehicles on the motorway. He only found out after asking around that there was an issue with a delivery truck. It was flipped over on the motorway and all its goods had fallen, blocking the road. Although the driver was also still trapped inside the truck, the fire brigade was currently doing their best to resolve the problem.
Su Le saw some drivers getting out of their vehicle to watch the scene and she took some celebratory sweets out and shared some with Wei Chu, “I think the road is going to remain blocked for a while. Let’s eat the sweets while we wait.” Once she said it, she opened one and popped it into her mouth.
Wei Chu copied her and also popped a sweet into his mouth. It was a milk flavoured one which he found was a bit too sweet. Wei Chu did not like sweets but since it was Su Le who gave them to him, he did not want to decline. However, eating them now, it actually didn’t taste that bad anymore.
“Do you have any plans for tomorrow?” Wei Chu’s left hand unconsciously tapped on the steering wheel, “Tomorrow, the senior managers in my company would be having a barbeque. You should come along as well.”
Su Le nodded when she thought about the future collaboration with Wei Chu’s company, “Of course I will go when there’s a barbeque.”
“My company is only renting the place. Meat will have to be barbequed personally if you want to eat,” Wei Chu smiled towards Su Le, “If you don’t know how, then I’m afraid you will have to watch the others eat.”
Su Le squinted as she looked at the smile on Wei Chu’s face, “I’m getting this feeling that you have the intention to mock me.” Could it be there was a sign on her that she said she doesn’t know how to barbeque food?
“Of course not, I’m just explaining to you the activity details,” Wei Chu changed the topic, “I know how to barbeque, but it only tastes like average. How about we forming a group together for tomorrow?”
Regarding his enthusiastic invitation, Su Le thought that if she and Wei Chu were grouped together, would she still be able to bond with the rest? Or should she let the others know, before the collaboration, that her relationship with their boss wasn’t bad so they wouldn’t skimp on their work when they worked together?
“The planning manager, PR manager, and Chen Xu will also be in my group,” Wei Chu unhurriedly added on, “There will not be many people in our group so it wouldn’t be too noisy.” Wei Chu did not feel the slightest shame when he arranged his group members just before the activity because one of the principles in pursuing a girlfriend is to exploit everything that can used and be determined not to miss any chances that can improve their relationship.
After she heard that both the planning manager and PR manager would also be in his group, Su Le nodded and agreed without hesitation. She also expressed that being in the same group as Wei Chu tomorrow would definitely be a great and harmonious day.
By the time Wei Chu successfully got Su Le to agree, the road ahead had cleared up. Wei Chu watched as the cars ahead started to move at a turtle pace and gleefully thought that the timing was just right. If that was not fate then what is.
—————-
The sky had already darkened by the time they arrived at Su Le’s apartment. Carrying a large bag of celebratory sweets, Su Le got out of the car as she thanked Wei Chu for giving her a lift home.
“Oh, by the way, I will come and pick you up tomorrow morning and take you to the meeting place,” Wei Chu stretched his head out from the driver’s seat, “I’ll give you a call when I arrive.”
“Okay, thanks.” Su Le remained still in one spot as she watched Wei Chu drive off before she turned around to enter the apartment.
—————-
Once she was home, Su Le took a bath and got dressed into her pajamas before writing and posting a chapter of her novel online. The tiredness that she had originally felt in Wei Chu’s car was all gone so she was very animated when she browsed online.
After she posted a picture of the sweets on Weibo and started to open up a game to play, her phone began to ring. She glanced at the caller ID, oh, it was someone who she hadn’t seen for three hours – Wei Chu.
“Hello,” Su Le picked up the call.
“Rest soon, it’s almost midnight now and I’m going to pick you up early tomorrow at 8am.”
As Su Le moved the cursor away from the game icon and shut down the computer, she replied, “En, I’ll prepare to sleep right away.”
After Su Le ended the call, and then climbed into her bed, she was confused as to how Wei Chu knew she wasn’t asleep yet.
But could it just have been him just wanting to tell her what time he would be arriving tomorrow?
Maybe she was just overthinking things. Su Le dazedly fell asleep.
