Page 66 of He Is My Bride
His hair was done in a high bun with small French braids running up along the sides of his head. His bangs were left framing his face, as usual, to soften his features. Nude makeup with light pink lip gloss.
Li Ying thought he looked adorable. It wasn’tsexy-sexy, but Li Ying still squirmed before the mirror while thinking about Hanjunseeing him like this, looking all cute and innocent while Hanjun knew Li Ying was anything but.
Hanjun, what would you do to me like this? …No, stop it!Li Ying’s imagination was running wild again, but he figured he’d better calm down, because he’d just tucked.
With everything ready, Li Ying called Yiyi and asked him to come pick him up. Yiyi would join them later when he was done at work, along with Cousin Hanrong.
Yiyi drove Li Ying to a peaceful, green residential district in the Shanghai suburbs, where Grandmother Linming lived with Wu Yiheng in her son’s house.
“Is Auntie Wang very scary, like her nephew?” Yiyi asked, meaning, of course, Wang Guosheng.
“Wu Yiheng is scarier.”
“Yeah, he’s scary. But isn’t he going to be your, uh, uncle-in-law?”
“Yep, but he doesn’t know it yet.”
Yiyi glanced at the diamond on Li Ying’s finger. “Will you tell him today?”
Li Ying nodded, winking at Yiyi and flashing him the ring. “He’s got eyes in his head, doesn’t he?”
Yiyi was bewildered by Li Ying’s irreverence towards the chairman. Yiyi knew, since Big Sister Li had shown up in Shanghai, that everything would change for the Wus.
Yiyi drove up to a manned gate and rolled down his window to state their business and handed the guard their passports. Of course, the head of Wu Pharma would live in a gated community like this, Li Ying thought. Only after a brief security clearance were they let through.
The area was full of French colonial-style stone mansions with vast gardens and swimming pools, and the streets and boulevards between were verdantly, if artificially, landscaped. It was peaceful, but void of the liveliness of the city outside.
Yiyi drove into the yard of one such large colonial mansion. The yard boasted a traditional Chinese garden, complete with a pond and a small pavilion. It seemed far more inviting than some of the sterile lawns they had passed, but it was still daunting in its scale.
Li Ying had visited such a house once when Uncle Qian had taken him and his siblings along to a barbecue at a business partner’s home, but other than as a guest, Li Ying had known he had no business in residences like that.
Could I live somewhere like this with Hanjun?Li Ying thought.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter to him if their house was big or small, as long as they lived in it together. Although Li Ying wouldn’t want to live behind a gate.
Looking at these big, lonely houses, he felt homesick for the cozy urban grunge of downtown New York. Where was the local friendly hobo? The street food stands with questionable food hygiene but unbeatable flavor? The ever-changing gallery of graffiti? The buskers? For a few years now, that had been Li Ying’s home. Although Li Ying would prefer to live in a place where people had time to greet each other, and had begun dreaming of a life outside the city.
A cottage in a small town in the country would be the dream,Li Ying thought.Wow, I’m getting old! But I think I’m ready to settle down. With a family…
Li Ying opened the car door and prepared himself to fight for that dream.
“Good luck, big sister, and thanks again for the driving tips!” Yiyi said.
“No problem! See you later, say hi to A-Yu if you see him in the office!”
“Will do!”
Li Ying made for the grand entrance. He rang the doorbell and soon heard high-pitched barking from inside. A maid opened the door.
“Welcome, miss.Please—”
From behind her barreled forth two Maltese dogs, like barking snowballs, wagging their tails wildly at the guest. Li Ying watched the dogs tip-tap to him across the tiled veranda, and wasn’t sure what to do when they started jumping against his legs. One of their little claws snagged on his stockings and pulled a tear in the thin hosiery.
“Oh dear!” the maid exclaimed in horror, but before the poor girl would freak out, Li Ying smiled at her reassuringly:
“It’s okay, it’s okay! They just got excited about getting guests, huh?”Damn rats…
“I’m very sorry about that, miss!” The maid grabbed the dogs by their bejeweled collars and pulled them away.
