Married A Man I Hate - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Culprit Little Rabbit  “Husband, who is she?”

Snowflakes fell continuously.

Underneath the porch stood two people, their single shadow falling upon the steps that had not yet been occupied by the white snow.

Le Qingfei stood on the steps, yet his entire body was still sinking into Fu Li’s embrace. The black overcoat and those firm, powerful arms tightly held him.

A pair of eyes peeked out from above Fu Li’s broad shoulders, dazed and startled, his eyelashes and hair vibrating gently blown by the wind. Like a butterfly that had been startled but forgot to fly away.

Fu Li gave Le Qingfei a forceful hug. “I’m leaving.”

After saying that, he released his grip, turned around, and walked into the snowy night, as if the embrace that just occurred was merely Le Qingfei’s hallucination.

“What in the world.”

Le Qingfei shrugged his shoulders, turned around, and went back into the villa.

The day before Christmas, Le Qingfei mailed the knitted sweater to his older sister and began packing his luggage.

“What do I need to bring when going out to play?”

Le Qingfei pulled out his phone and searched for travel guides for a long time, finally getting stuck on the suitcase.

The carry-on suitcase at home was tiny, twenty inches. Do rich people not need to bring luggage when they travel?

Le Qingfei hesitated for a long while, but still decided to ask Fu Li.

However, Fu Li’s phone call came a step ahead.

“Feifei, I’m sorry. This trip might need to be postponed.”

Le Qingfei knelt in front of the carry-on suitcase, holding the phone in one hand and the kettle he found from the kitchen in the other. He pursed his lips, working hard to make himself not sound too disappointed. “Oh……………”

“I’m sorry, Feifei.”

“There’s no need to say sorry. Is it because you are too busy?”

“No, my work has already been handled, and right now I am on the way to the airport.” Fu Li paused for a moment. “Grandpa’s health has taken a turn for the better. The day after tomorrow is his birthday, and the family is holding a birthday banquet, so…”

“A birthday banquet!”

Le Qingfei’s pleasantly surprised voice came through the phone. “Can you take me with you? I love attending birthday banquets the most. Grandpas and grandmas all like me very much.”

Fu Li didn’t seem to expect him to have this kind of reaction, his tone hesitant: “Feifei, are you really willing to return to the Fu family with me?”

Le Qingfei gave an affirmative answer. Cheerful and leaping with joy, he told Fu Li that his parents used to love bringing him to let old, long-lived elders pat his head, saying it could bless him with lifelong peace and a long life of a hundred years.

“I have been patted nine times already. Just one more time and I can reach a hundred years old.”

Fu Li smiled and softly said, “Okay.”

On the morning the plane arrived in Jinggang, Fu Li was dragged to the mall by Le Qingfei, who had been looking forward to it for a long time, to buy “clothes suitable for attending a birthday banquet.”

Fu Li glanced at the pink shirt on his body. “Are you sure this is suitable for attending a birthday banquet, and won’t make me look like a playboy?”

Le Qingfei wore a pink beret. In front of the collar of his white ruffled satin shirt, a pink silk scarf was tied into a bowknot. On the bridge of his nose sat round, black-framed decorative glasses. One hand was crossed over his chest, and the other hand slowly stroked his chin, thinking seriously.

Like a Harry Potter who had switched careers to become a styling master.

“It won’t!” Master Le waved his small hand. “You don’t look like a playboy at all.”

Fu Li smiled and reached out his hand, flicking the bowknot on Le Qingfei’s chest, letting Le Qingfei dress him up.

The black Rolls-Royce drove through the snow in northern Jinggang. The black and white surroundings were silent, and Le Qingfei, who was leaning against the car window, remained the only color.

Le Qingfei thought of something and turned his head to look at Fu Li.

Fu Li was looking at the documents in his hand, sensing Le Qingfei’s gaze immediately. He turned his head slightly, his eyes still remaining on the documents, using a raised eyebrow to question him.

“It’s nothing.”

“Mm,” Fu Li adjusted his glasses. “Even if you run away again right now, I can still find you.”

His mind had been guessed correctly.

Le Qingfei curled his lips and continued to lean against the window glass to look at the roadside scenery he had missed before. “I wasn’t thinking of running away at all. The Prada you bought me isn’t waterproof at all…” His voice grew smaller and smaller.

Fu Li picked up the documents to cover his face, his shoulders shaking. Finally, it took a punch from Le Qingfei for him to hold back his laughter.

The vehicle crossed through the snow-covered forest and drove into the brightly lit Fu family estate.

Le Qingfei was just about to unfasten his seatbelt but his hand was held by Fu Li.

“What’s wrong?”

Fu Li did not answer him immediately. The car window lowered a fraction, and he looked toward the Fu family servant who was leading them to park. The eyes behind his lenses lacked even a shred of his past gentleness.

“Eldest Young Master, Young Mistress…”

“Call him Master Qingfei,” Fu Li interrupted.

The servant with a goatee nodded repeatedly,赔 smiling. “The garage is already full. We can only trouble the Eldest Young Master and Master Qingfei to walk this short stretch of road.”

Le Qingfei originally wanted to nod, but looking at Fu Li’s tightened jawline, he chose to sit obediently on the spot.

Fu Li put the overcoat onto Le Qingfei, wrapped the person tightly with a scarf, leaving only an air vent at the top of his head. With one arm, he scooped the person up and walked quickly toward the main house.

Le Qingfei couldn’t see, feeling dazed and confused, not even sure if he was walking himself; it felt as if he drifted over.

Inside the cloakroom on the first floor of the villa, Fu Li dismissed the servants who came to help. He dusted the snow off Le Qingfei’s body, tidied his hair, and paid special attention to the strawberry hairpin that had been pressed crookedly.

“Don’t be nervous,” Fu Li rubbed Le Qingfei’s little braid. “Just leave it to me.”

Le Qingfei raised his hands to hug Fu Li’s arm, leaning close, his head gently resting against Fu Li’s upper arm. “Husband, don’t be nervous either.”

Rule Three: In occasions where we need to act as an affectionate and loving married couple, cooperation is required.

It finally came in handy at this moment.

Fu Li let out a soft laugh.

Le Qingfei intimately linked arms with Fu Li and walked into the Fu family’s main villa, unable to resist tilting his head up curiously to look around.

How was this a villa where people lived? It was practically a museum.

The three-story high ceiling was extremely spacious. The east-facing floor-to-ceiling wooden windows framed a vibrant red plum blossom blooming in the courtyard, quiet and elegant. However, the furniture in the living room was strange; it was luxury goods for sure, but it was extremely mismatched with this Chinese-style villa.

It should all be wood, the embellishments should be celadon and jade carvings, and sandalwood would also be more suitable than the perfume smell in the air.

Le Qingfei thought.

At this moment, a handsome, sharp-featured middle-aged man walked toward them.

Le Qingfei glanced at Fu Li. Before the latter could speak, the man had already arrived in front of Le Qingfei and extended his hand. “Nephew-in-law, a rare sight indeed.”

“Uncle. Hello, hello, I am Le Qingfei.”

Le Qingfei let go of Fu Li, held the man’s hand with both of his hands simultaneously, and shook it forcefully to express solemnity.

He should have thought of it earlier; Fu Li’s maternal grandmother was German, and the one who looked the most like a foreigner was this uncle.

“Was the journey smooth?” Shang Rong withdrew his hand, looking Le Qingfei up and down with a half-smile. “The car didn’t break down halfway this time, did it?”

“The car broke down” was the excuse Fu Li used back then to cancel the engagement banquet, and Le Qingfei knew it.

He also didn’t catch the underlying meaning in Shang Rong’s words, nodding truthfully, “No, no, the whole journey here was very smooth. How about you, Uncle?”

The brow that Fu Li had originally knitted smoothed out after hearing these words. The corners of his mouth hooked up slightly as he looked at Shang Rong, who froze on the spot.

Shang Rong was caught off guard by the question. He carefully observed Le Qingfei’s expression, but only saw a pair of clear and sincere large eyes.

“…Smooth. You two go back to your room to rest first.”

“Okay, Uncle. Goodbye, Uncle.”

While Le Qingfei linked arms with Fu Li and continued to explore this “museum” like a primary school student on their first spring outing, Shang Rong was still contemplating.

“It’s impossible that he didn’t catch the meaning.” Shang Rong lifted his head to glance at Le Qingfei. “Pretending? Is his calculating mind really that deep?”

Upstairs, Fu Li’s room was on the second floor.

Different from the awkward and strange furniture downstairs, the decoration inside the bedroom was exactly as Le Qingfei had imagined. Red sandalwood and plain white were the main themes, the furnishings were simple, and the bedding and curtains of the double bed were an elegant light cyan.

A long narrow table was placed in front of the window, and the sandalwood fragrance lingering in the room drifted out from the incense burner on the table.

“This seems to be a vase.”

Le Qingfei walked to the long narrow table, wanting to pick it up but fearing he would break it. He pointed at the white porcelain narrow-necked bottle next to the incense burner. “There should be flowers, right?”

The servants at home would always put flowers in all the vases when his aunt was about to come home. Le Qingfei had once been scolded because he couldn’t distinguish whether something was an ornament or a vase, so he remembered it very clearly.

“Mm, what kind of flowers does Feifei like?”

Fu Li was still wearing those black leather gloves. He casually wiped the headboard of the bed, and after confirming there was no dust, he took them off and felt the bedsheets.

Damp.

Fu Li pulled out his phone to send a message to the driver.

Le Qingfei didn’t notice Fu Li’s actions, his gaze drawn to the photographs displayed on the shelf: a four or five-year-old boy wearing the white shirt of Hardlyn Public School, his small face stiffened, holding a bouquet of flowers, standing at the entrance of a kindergarten.

The admission photo of Hardlyn Public School.

“Haha, Fu Li, so you were already this methodical and serious when you were little.”

Clearly, there was still baby fat on his cheeks, yet he already looked like a little adult, his tie tied properly too.

Le Qingfei continued looking at the few photographs. One of them showed the “little adult” wearing a white suit, standing under a Christmas tree with a girl in a princess dress, seemingly having just finished participating in a ball.

“Oh my.”

Le Qingfei picked up the photo gossipingly and walked to the bathroom where Fu Li was currently inspecting. “Husband, who is she?”

The smile that had just risen on the corners of Fu Li’s mouth froze after seeing the photograph. The eyes behind his lenses stared at the person in the photo, seemingly reminiscing seriously.

Just when Le Qingfei’s fire of gossip had already burned out, Fu Li, like an automated Wikipedia text-to-speech robot, answered word by word:

“Li Nuoya. Her father once served as the Vice Mayor of Jinggang City. After graduating from middle school, she went to the United States to study abroad and once studied at…”

“Stop, stop, stop.” Le Qingfei made a time-out gesture. “You’ve turned into a robot again, and I’m not that curious anyway.”

After saying that, he put the photograph back.

After taking a rest, Fu Li took him to the adjacent small building to see Fu family’s grandpa, who was still resting in bed.

Fu Qian was also there. Seeing the two of them arrive, he rolled his eyes and left.

Le Qingfei was not to be outdone, turning his head to roll an even bigger one.

But he didn’t expect Fu Qian to actually turn his head back to look at him. At any rate, they were on the other party’s territory, so Le Qingfei chickened out and immediately hid in front of Fu Li’s chest.

Fu family’s grandpa’s spirit was quite good, but he wasn’t very lucid and couldn’t recognize people. The caregiver on the side had to reintroduce Fu Li to him every few minutes.

On the contrary, Le Qingfei was born looking like the kind grandpa liked; his oval face was fair and soft, and his eyes were large. Grandpa Fu could say a few more words to him, and in the end, even took out a red envelope to give to him.

Returning to the second floor of the main house, Le Qingfei dared to flaunt the red envelope in front of Fu Li. “It’s given to me.”

Fu Li smiled. “Yes, it’s for the grandson’s wife.”

Le Qingfei let out a soft “humph,” knowing that Fu Li would only call him things like “Madame,” “Wife,” or “Spouse” when they were in private. Thus, he magnanimously spared him and carefully tucked the red envelope away.

At this moment, a burst of a woman’s hearty laughter came from downstairs.

Le Qingfei recognized this voice; she was just as loud when scolding Fu Qian——Fu Qian’s mother, Zou Ying.

“Qingfei,” Fu Li looked toward him, “you go back to the room first.”

Le Qingfei nodded half-understandingly, but not long after turning around, he got lost in the massive, hollow square-shaped corridor on the second floor.

There were too many doors; he couldn’t remember at all which one was his and Fu Li’s room.

Relying on his intuition, Le Qingfei pushed open a door. It wasn’t a bedroom, but a collection room filled with countless vases and porcelains.

“Wow.”

Le Qingfei opened his mouth slightly in surprise, took half a step forward with his toes, but retracted it extremely quickly. “Just looking from outside the door is fine. A place like this looks like it’s easy to break something.”

“Le Qingfei, since when did your courage become so small?”

Fu Qian walked out from behind a shelf with a cigarette in his mouth.

Le Qingfei didn’t want to enter even more now. “I’m not being cowardly, I’m being cautious. Fu Li taught me, if you aren’t sure whether doing this is right or wrong, then don’t do it first.”

Fu Qian let out a scoff.

Then, he picked up a gilt four-legged jue cup, inlaid with emeralds and tiny red gemstones, dazzling and eye-catching.

“There are a lot of fun things inside here. Do you still remember that time you cried and begged your uncle wanting to participate in the Egypt study tour? You missed out on so many treasures that time, do you really not want to come in and take a look this time?”

It really was quite beautiful.

Le Qingfei stared at that cup, tiptoeing slightly, his hands pinching in front of his chest like a rabbit.

A few seconds later, Le Qingfei took a step back. “I don’t want to go in. You will definitely frame me.”

“…What?”

Le Qingfei was very firm. “Bad people are all like this. If I go in, something will definitely shatter. This is your house, they will definitely believe you and will misunderstand me. I don’t want to, I absolutely don’t want to be misunderstood.”

Fu Qian’s brow twitched. “Le Qingfei, you should watch fewer TV dramas.”

“I don’t want to stay here. Fu Li said, this is called staying away from falling walls.”

Le Qingfei turned around to leave

“Clang!”

From behind came the loud crash of porcelain shattering onto the ground.

A fragment of a Ming Dynasty Yongle blue and white cloud-and-dragon pattern celestial sphere vase flew “whoosh” right to Le Qingfei’s feet.