Marriage First, True Love Later Novel

Chapter 17: Su Yijiao

Translator: Vicky_ Editor: Vicky_

“Lin Li is so black-hearted that her heart is definitely black in color!”

While Anran stared at the array of food on the table, she kept bad-mouthing Lin Li in her mind.

Anran watched Lin Li as Lin Li busied herself with taking a bite from every dish with her chopsticks. She tightened her grip on her purse and fumed. “Can you finish everything?”

Lin Li gave her a side-eye before continuing to help herself with scrumptious food. She was in a good mood when she spoke. “I am a different person now. Although I am eating with one mouth, the food is digested by two people. Even if I eat like a horse, I am not afraid of getting fat at all.” As she talked, she used her chopsticks to take a tender piece of fish meat and place it in Anran’s bowl. She said generously, “Come, you should eat some as well. This restaurant serves the best steamed little yellow croaker in Jiang City.”

Anran stared at the fish meat in her bowl. She could feel her heart bleeding. She was weeping internally, her wallet was laden with grief, and her credit card was also extremely distressed!

As the saying goes, one could obtain comfort by eating their way through grief. When Anran thought of how her precious money would leave her later, she came to her senses immediately and dug into the delicious food in front of her.

Just as she was about to place the food into her mouth, the phone in her handbag started ringing. Her ringtone was an obscure instrumental piece with a melancholic melody.

Anran rummaged through her handbag and pulled her phone out. It was a phone call from Su Yicheng. Anran threw a glance at Lin Li. After some time has passed, she still has not picked up his call. Actually, she did not know what to say to him. Although they were husband and wife, they were still not close to each other.

“Who is that? Why don’t you answer the phone?” Lin Li gave Anran a puzzled look before something clicked in her mind. She guessed, “Is that Mr. Su?”

Anran nodded. In the end, she accepted the call. “Hello.”

“Are you busy right now? Am I bothering you?” Su Yicheng’s light, gentle voice came from the phone. It was extremely pleasing to the ears.

“No, no, I’m not. I am currently eating lunch.” Anran answered him truthfully. She wanted to engage him in small talk, but she could not think of anything at all.

......

“Oh.” Su Yicheng replied in acknowledgment with a slightly tired voice. He spoke again, “I haven’t eaten since morning.” His tone was a bit pitiful as if he was trying to win her sympathy.

“Er, why haven’t you eaten yet? Are you overloaded with work?” Anran voiced her concern in a timely manner.

“Yes, I am quite busy with work,” Su Yicheng replied softly.

Anran did not know what to say to that. She was a passive person, so coming up with conversation topics was never her strongest suit. Just like that, the two of them held their phones to their ears in silence for a moment. Just as Anran was about to open her mouth to end the call, her eyes caught a beautiful lady walking toward her, led by Manager Zhang.

Anran was so mesmerized by the sight of that beautiful lady that she almost forgot that she was still in the middle of a call.

That beautiful lady walked up to Anran before sizing her up with a slight smile on her lips. Anran had the intuition that she has seen this smiling face somewhere in the past. However, she could not recall where she had seen it.

“Mrs. Su, this is Chairperson Su. She is the owner of Youran Cuisine.” Manager Zhang introduced her to Anran.

Intrigued, that beautiful lady dipped her head toward Anran as she said, “Mrs. Su.” After that, her smile became more obvious as she looked at Anran.

Anran eyed the fair-skinned lady in front of her. She was tall, slim, and extremely gorgeous. Instead of giving her a mature appearance, her wavy tresses and blunt bangs made her look pretty and cute.

“Anran? Anran?” Su Yicheng tried to bring her attention back to the call.

Anran collected her thoughts and replied, “Uh, here. I’m here.”

“Are you outside?” Su Yicheng asked. He heard Manager Zhang’s voice earlier.

“Yeah, I am eating lunch with Lin Li at Youran Cuisine,” Anran answered honestly.

“I see. Please give your phone to Yijiao.”

“Yijiao? Who is Yijiao?” Anran did not quite follow him. She thought, “Who is Yijiao? I clearly told him just now that I was eating lunch with Lin Li!”

“Sister-in-law, my older brother is referring to me. I am Yijiao.” The beautiful lady, who was standing at the side, said with a sweet smile.

Her words stunned Anran. Lin Li, who was sitting at the other side of the table, was shocked as well. They could not wrap their heads around the situation.

“Just give your phone to her. Let me have a few words with her,” Su Yicheng said.

Anran stared at Su Yijiao speechlessly before nodding distractedly. She had completely forgotten that Su Yicheng was on the other side of the phone, so he could not see her nodding her head at all. After that, she passed her phone to Su Yijiao.

Su Yijiao accepted Anran’s phone without any hesitation. She held the phone to her ear right away and said, “Older brother, do you possess supernatural sight or hearing? Or did you have Guanyin’s divination powers? It has not been long since I asked Manager Zhang to bring me to sister-in-law’s table, but you already found out about this.”

Lin Li kicked Anran beneath the table and gave her a pointed look as if she was asking her what was going on.

Anran furrowed her brows and shook her head at Lin Li. She also could not make heads or tails of the situation.

She did not know what Su Yicheng said to Su Yijiao. She could only hear Su Yijiao chuckle to the phone. “Don’t worry, I did not intimidate her. I just dropped by the restaurant when Manager Zhang told me that the guest, who dined at Whisper of Flowers yesterday, was here today, so I came over to see her. Anyway, you act pretty fast. When I went home yesterday, our mother was rambling about finding you a life partner. Today, I have a new sister-in-law.”

While Anran listened in on their conversation, her small face blushed. She did not expect to get married so quickly, either. Yesterday, she was a bachelorette. Today, she was already in the ranks of married women alongside Lin Li.

“All right, all right. She is my sister-in-law, so I won’t do anything bad to her. You are so protective of her,” Su Yijiao said, before winking at Anran.

Anran was at a loss, so she smiled awkwardly.

“Fine, you can tell mother yourself. I will not spill the beans.” As she said this, she nodded. After that, she returned the phone to Anran with a feminine smile, “My older brother said that he wanted to whisper sweet nothings to sister-in-law.”

Since Anran was a bashful person, she turned scarlet as she took the phone from Su Yijiao. “Hey.”

“Did Yijiao catch you off guard?” Su Yicheng’s voice was gentle and pleasant to the ears as usual.

Anran looked at Su Yijiao, who was grinning from ear to ear, and shook her head. “N-No.”

“She is my younger sister and the owner of Youran Cuisine. She heard that you were around, so she wanted to meet you to satisfy her curiosity. She did not mean any harm,” Su Yicheng explained.

“Yes, I know.” She heard everything that Su Yijiao told him just then.

“I will be back by tonight. If I come home early, I will give you a call. We can meet up and have a chat,” Su Yicheng said.

“Sure.” Anran nodded. They needed to have a proper talk about their relationship.

After Anran hung up the call, she turned around to find Su Yijiao still around. Su Yijiao asked Anran with a smile, “Sister-in-law, what did my older brother tell you? Did he say any affectionate words?”

“Er, n-nothing.” Anran was sweating internally, thinking, “There aren’t any!”

“Forget it, you do not need to tell me about the sweet nothings between you and him,” Su Yijiao said meaningfully with an ambiguous smile.

“I am really telling the truth!” Anran asserted. She wished that she could swear on her life to prove the truthfulness of her words.

Su Yijiao only smiled in response. She turned to nod at Lin Li before looking at the food on the table and saying, “Sister-in-law, our kitchen is introducing a new menu today. I will ask them to cook those dishes for you to have a taste.” After she finished speaking, she turned around to head to the kitchen.