Chapter 46 - Senior Alumnus's Complaints

Chapter 46 Senior Alumnus’s Complaints

Of course, Mu Li doubted Lin Qing’s words.

Lin Qing waited for him to walk to her and held his hand before he could say anything. “I…”

She was hesitant and looked very guilty.

Mu Li listened to her attentively—

“I’m going to be late for work,” Lin Qing said resignedly. Then she dragged Mu Li and went downstairs.

On the way to the company, Lin Qing seemed to have something on her mind and barely talked.

Although she was usually in this way, Mu Li sensed that something was unusual with her.

When driving on the widest road in the center of the city, Mu Li asked, “Do you have any plans for tonight?”

Lin Qing withdrew her gaze from outside the window and asked back, “Why do you ask that?”

Her response made Mu Li feel very dissatisfied.

So he continued, “I want to have dinner with you tonight.”

Lin Qing was a little embarrassed. “Sorry, but I have an appointment tonight.”

Mu Li turned a deaf ear to her declining and said, “Cancel it. I’ve already booked the restaurant.”

Lin Qing was put in a dilemma. “But… I don’t want to break my promise.”

Her words struck deep into Mu Li’s heart.

She didn’t want to break her promise.

So, between Chen Qudong and him, Chen Qudong was always the more important one in her heart.

He was just the less important one.

After a moment of silence, Mu Li asked, “Who are you going to meet?”

Lin Qing paused. She was weighing how to answer him.

“It’s a friend in the company. We planned to have dinner together after work today.” For the first time, Lin Qing told a lie in the face of Mu Li.

Compared to unnecessary disputes, she preferred to solve problems in a convenient way.

Even though she felt this was very unfair for Mu Li.

After hearing Lin Qing’s words, Mu Li seemed to buy it and did not talk about this matter again. This surprised Lin Qing and made her feel much more relaxed.

After they arrived at the office building, Lin Qing said in a gentle voice, “Drive carefully.” Then, she unfastened the seat belt and got out of the car. Mu Li did not start the engine. Instead, he got off the car with Lin Qing.

Lin Qing turned around and looked at Mu Li in surprise.

Mu Li walked to Lin Qing and pulled her into his arms without allowing her to speak. He hugged her tightly like this in public.

Lin Qing couldn’t figure out what was going on for a moment. She was hugged too tightly by Mu Li and was a little short of breath…

“Mu, Mu Li, what’s going on?” She was a little uneasy, and a little happy.

She felt the warmth and the sense of security that could only be felt in his embrace.

Lin Qing responded to his action and also hugged him gently.

Mu Li lowered his head slightly to approach Lin Qing’s ear and whisper, “You look very beautiful today.”

Lin Qing was stunned.

Mu Li kissed her earlobe, then let go of her when she hadn’t realized what was happening.

“Come back home early,” Mu Li said. He did not ask for more.

Lin Qing smiled slightly with her mouth closed.

This smile drove away most of Mu Li’s gloominess. He went back into the car and started the engine.

Before Mu Li left, Lin Qing said again, “Drive carefully.”

Her mind was occupied by Mu Li’s embrace and his deep and gentle voice.

She shouldn’t lie to him. Even though she had an appointment with senior alumnus, she and Chen Qudong would just have a dinner together. She was supposed to make it clear to Mu Li.

Lin Qing was somewhat regretful.

Looking at the silver sports car that was moving far away, Lin Qing decided that she would tell Mu Li the truth after going back home tonight.

No matter what would happen, she wouldn’t care.

Lu Xiao asked for leave today. It wasn’t because she wanted to hide from Lin Qing after the call, she made last night, but because a friend of hers whom she hadn’t seen for many years arrived in City A last night.

Last night, outside the newly-built railway station of City A, Lu Xiao welcomed her friend. The two of them were so excited to see each other that they chatted all night.

After learning that Lu Xiao had asked for leave, Lin Qing recalled that Mu Li told her last night someone had called her. She checked her call records and found it was Lu Xiao.

But since Lu Xiao asked for leave today, Lin Qing decided to talk with Lu Xiao a few days later. And she didn’t disturb Lu Xiao who was on a “vacation”.

When Lin Qing saw Chen Qudong, she had a very plain and calm feeling. She put her hand on her heart and felt nothing unusual.

Chen Qudong was very enthusiastic. He saw Lin Qing slowly walking over from the opposite and greeted her when she was still far away.

“Hi, Lin Qing, it’s been a long while.” After Lin Qing sat down, the senior alumnus’s first sentence made her silent.

It was not really a long time.

Nonetheless, Lin Qing nodded politely and agreed with him.

Then the waiter delivered the menu and asked, “Sir, may I take you the order now?”

Chen Qudong probably came early and waited for a long time.

This was a very special restaurant and it mainly provided Chinese food. The interior decoration was based on the Chinese Han culture and was in a particularly romantic style.

Lin Qing rarely came to restaurants like this. She looked around and found that most of the customers looked like lovers.

The atmosphere…was somewhat unusual.

However, Lin Qing still found an excuse to convince herself that perhaps her senior alumnus didn’t consider this aspect. He chose this restaurant only because of the nice food here.

Chen Qudong did not say anything about the environment later, which further validated Lin Qing’s idea.

Lin Qing was not good at ordering, so she handed over the menu to Chen Qudong. Then when the waiter confirmed their order, she gave her opinion.

She asked Chen Qudong, “Can we change the sweet and sour fish into other dishes?”

Upon hearing her words, Chen Qudong had an expression of sudden enlightenment and clapped his hand once. “Oh right, you never eat the sweet and sour fish.”

As a result, the delicious sweet and sour fish dish was replaced by the braised pork ribs.

Lin Qing didn’t like sweet and sour fish. Everyone who knew her knew about this.

Chen Qudong was her senior alumnus and also knew it.

Lin Qing smiled with gratitude. She treated senior alumnus Chen Qudong plainly like treating an ordinary person. He was no longer the object of an unrequited love for her, but a friend whom she could naturally chat and have dinner with.

Lin Qing treated him as an older brother.

She suddenly thought of that hazy and one-sided affection with light fragrance she used to have for him. She wondered if it was really the romance between a man and a woman.

Probably, she had entrusted countless beautiful fantasies on her senior alumnus, a man whom she could only look at from afar at that time.

Thinking like this, she felt even more relieved.

After the waiter served the dishes, Chen Qudong poured a glass of red wine for Lin Qing. Lin Qing did not recognize the brand of the wine. She guessed that it was probably a foreign brand.

Lin Qing enjoyed the dinner very well. The cooks here were excellent and every dish was excellent.

The two of Lin Qing and Chen Qudong chatted a lot for the first half of time. The topics were not fixed, and they talked about anything they could think of.

However, from Chen Qudong’s expression, Lin Qing could tell that he wanted to say something but didn’t say it all along.

When she thought of this again, Chen Qudong seemed to have seen through her thoughts and took the initiative to bring up a topic, “Although I asked you last time, I still want to know, are you happy now?”

This question seemed to be a must-answer question between them when they met.

Just like now, Lin Qing would definitely nod with a calm face.

The nodding was neither as passionate as that might happen between the lovers, nor was it a perfunctory movement.

Chen Qudong knew that Lin Qing’s state like this was good.

However, he couldn’t help frowning.

“That’s good. At least you are leading a happy life.”

There was a hint of sadness in his words, but the sentiment was not strong.

Lin Qing took a small piece of rib into her bowl. Upon hearing Chen Qudong’s words, she stopped and looked up to ask, “Senior alumnus, are you not happy?”

Chen Qudong sighed lightly. It seemed he didn’t want to talk about it. But because Lin Qing asked, he felt he’d better answer her, “Now I find out that marriage isn’t as simple as I thought.”

Lin Qing agreed with him on this point more or less.

Chen Qudong said and sighed again, “Before the marriage, I thought that Ruoyi and I chose to be together because we love each other. But now that we are married, I find that we often argue over a lot of meaningless trivial matters. I didn’t expect Ruoyi’s personality to be like this.”

Lin Qing listened to Chen Qudong quietly and heard him out. She thought for a while before responding to him, “Perhaps she didn’t mean to be like that. After all, marriage is a life-long thing. There are many things that…need compromise.”

Speaking of this, Lin Qing thought of Mu Li.

Although what Lin Qing said was reasonable, Chen Qudong only wanted to complain about his wife Liang Ruoyi now, and completely ignored her words.

“I just don’t think I can communicate with Liang Ruoyi anymore.” Chen Qudong called out Liang Ruoyi’s full name directly. It showed the discord between them more obviously, because loving couple wouldn’t usually call each other by the full name in this country’s culture.

Lin Qing recalled and thought that although she and Mu Li had disagreements, they were never so angry at each other like how Chen Qudong felt now.

Chen Qudong continued, “She even threw a tantrum on me for some trivial things, and complained about everything on me. Furthermore, I found that we couldn’t agree on a lot of things.” He rubbed his temples heavily at the mention of these things.

Seeing that he was slightly tired from his marriage, Lin Qing felt she should do something to help.

Although she and Mu Li could not be considered a model couple, they respected each other.

Lin Qing sincerely suggested, “Senior alumnus, I think maybe you can talk with Sister Ruoyi. It will be much better if you tell each other about everything on your minds.”

Looking at the food on the table, Chen Qudong only felt bored. He shook his head. “She is different from you. Every time I want to say something, she will be furious and feels like I’m looking for trouble with her. I really don’t know how to get along with her.”

Then Chen Qudong added, “I don’t know if I was right about choosing to get married.”

Lin Qing tried to enlighten him, “Since you got married, you must have feelings for each other. Maybe you’re just unsatisfied with the married life for the time being. You two will get used to it after living together for some time.”

Chen Qudong looked at Lin Qing who was sitting opposite him. She still had an innocent and delicate face, and her calm expression without subtle waves made one feel at ease.

Seeing that Chen Qudong didn’t say anything, Lin Qing continued, “Actually, senior alumnus, you don’t have to take these things serious… Just like Mu Li and I, sometimes we need to make compromises.”

She used herself as an example, but it seemed this sent a wrong signal to Chen Qudong.

Some certain emotion flashed through Chen Qudong’s eyes. “So to speak, things between you and Mu Li didn’t go well?”

Lin Qing hesitated for a moment, “Not really…”

Chen Qudong interrupted Lin Qing, “Lin Qing, I always want to ask you about this. Why did you marry Mu Li in the first place?”

“Huh?” Lin Qing choked on the question. She married Mu Li because…

She wanted to forget Chen Qudong, who was sitting before her eyes right now.

Now it seemed Lin Qing had done it.

“You didn’t love Mu Li. Why did you marry him?” Compared to his own marriage situation, Chen Qudong seemed to care more about Lin Qing’s.

This was very difficult for Lin Qing to answer.

“I…” She couldn’t find any excuse for a time and only said, “Because I wanted to get married.”

Chen Qudong was not quite convinced. He sighed after drinking up his wine.

“I’m getting more and more confused about marriage.” As he spoke, he put down his wine glass.

Now, Lin Qing thought that the probability of one falling in love with another and the other party happening to love the one back and, in the end, they can have a happy marriage was far too small.

It would be really valuable if that did happen.