NWWNL – Chapter 5

Chapter 5.

Early the next morning, Xu Xinyi, who was still sleeping in bed, heard a knock at the door.

Xu Xinyi had entered the film crew she was currently working with late and had been filming day and night to keep up with the progress of the filming recently. Since the TV series “Bei Bei’s Promotion” had started, she hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep. After Yi Yang had returned to the country she had asked the director for two days off for personal matters, so now she was finally able to catch up and have a good sleep.

Last night, she had specially greeted Butler Chen and told him not to fetch her for breakfast in the morning but now, early in the morning, there was someone knocking at the door, and Xu Xinyi was very upset.

Through her sleep-dazed mind, she failed to hear what the people outside the door were saying properly. But she vaguely seemed to hear the words ‘the Old Master is back’.

The Old Master is back?

“The Old Master is back?!”

Though she was suffering like she was dying, Xu Xinyi, who was hiding in the quilt, sat up abruptly as if she had received an electric shock and tossed the quilt aside after hearing that.

Didn’t they say he would be back next week? Why is he back today?

Xu Xinyi subconsciously looked around. She was alone on the messy bed. Yi Yang was not there.

She absent-mindedly patted her head. She had almost forgotten that Yi Yang went to sleep in another room last night.

Whatever. She might as well just let come what may*. Xinyi stood up and, running her fingers through her hair as she walked, she moved to the door of the room, took a deep breath, and opened the door.

“Butler Chen, what’s the matter?”

Butler Chen, who was standing outside the door, smiled and said, “The Old Master came back early this morning, and now he is downstairs. The Old Madam asked me to ask you and the young master to get up quickly.”

“Ok, Yi Yang and I will head down in a minute.”

After Butler Chen turned away and headed downstairs, Xu Xinyi hurriedly opened the doors of the several empty rooms nearby and checked each of them one by one. She searched high and low in all of the rooms directly to the left and right but found no one.

While she entered each room Xu Xinyi softly called out Yi Yang’s name, but even after going through half a dozen rooms, there was no response.

Where exactly did that bastard sleep last night?

There were several rooms on the third floor and the floor was divided into east and west wings. While in the center there was a high-class common area that housed the stairs leading from the first floor to the third floor. Since there was no one in the east wing’s rooms Xu Xinyi suspected he went to sleep in one of the two west rooms.

Xu Xinyi, barefoot and hunched over, stealthily moved through the central area and headed toward the west wing.

She couldn’t move with great fanfare. She had to move quietly and not let the people downstairs hear, especially she couldn’t let the Old Master hear. He would instantly realize something was strange when he found that the couple who had been married for two years were still sleeping in separate rooms.

There was a faint voice heard from the living room.

“Dad, let me help you upstairs so you can have a rest.” This was the voice of Mrs. Yi.

Then came the sound of footsteps moving upstairs.

It was at this time that the door of the west wing room closest to her opened and Yi Yang stood there in the doorway in his pajamas, his hair was disheveled and messy as if he had just woken up.

The two looked at each other.

The footsteps were getting closer and clearer, it sounded like they were about to come up to the third floor.

It’s all over. Grandpa can’t see them like this.

Xu Xinyi had no time to explain. Dashing forward quickly, as light as a swallow she jumped onto Yi Yang, and then, like a hungry wolf, she rode on Yiyang with great agility. Her hands clung to his neck and her feet wrapped tightly around his waist, she was like a sloth climbing a tree trunk.

Since it was so early in the morning, Yi Yang had not yet fully regained consciousness, and his mind was in a daze. Both his brain and limbs were still in the awakening stage.

Just after he opened the door, he had not had time to say a word, when a gust of wind hit, there was a blur in front of his eyes, followed by a huge momentum. He completely failed to prepare in advance and Yi Yang, whose whole body was unsteady, staggered a few steps back until his broad back hit the wall.

I was almost crushed to death by Xu Xinyi!

Bang–.

Unable to control the momentum, their foreheads collided into each other hard.

“hiss–“

Yi Yang’s eyes turned black and his back ached. There was at least a hundred jin of Xu Xinyi hanging onto the front of his body. After regaining his footing, he was shaking with anger. “Xu Xinyi! Get down!”

What is she doing so early in the morning?!

Xu Xinyi clasped her hands over her forehead and hissed with pain, failing to speak for a long time.

The footsteps at the top of the stairs abruptly stopped.

Yi Yang, who still had Xu Xinyi riding him and covering her forehead, looked at the Old Master who was supported up by Mrs. Yi.

“Grandpa?”

Xu Xinyi, who was riding on Yi Yang, twisted her torso around and looked back. While pretending to be surprised she called out again. “Grandpa, are you really back?”

The Old Master’s return was sudden and surprising. She had not expected it and was not prepared at all.

The Old Master had toiled a lot when he was young, and now, when he was older, the physical pains he could ignore in his youth were catching up with him.

Two months after Xu Xinyi and Yi Yang got married, the Old Master had had to go to the hospital for medical treatment. Later, he was transferred to a nursing home for recuperation, where he had lived for more than a year.

Not long ago, the doctor announced that the Old Master, who had been diligently recuperating in the nursing home, seemed to be getting better and could go home for recuperation, the Old Master immediately became impatient and directly went home the next day.

Of course, he did not bother to tell the Yi family of this matter, the Old Master was a bit impish about it, wanting to give everyone a surprise.

And this was the scene that greeted him first thing after he returned home.

The Old Master didn’t seem to mind, but Mrs. Yi frowned. She looked at the two of them, both looking untidy, crawling all over each other, and fooling around early in the morning and opened her mouth to ask, “This early in the morning, what are you two doing? You haven’t even worn your shoes! Are you not coming down?”

Xu Xinyi shrunk her feet that were sandwiched on Yi Yang’s waist. “Knowing that Grandpa was here, I was in a bit of a hurry to greet him and forgot to put on my shoes, so Yi Yang felt sorry for me since he loves me so much. Mom, don’t blame him.”

The Old Master stopped Mrs. Yi’s lecture and looked kindly at the two of them. “Alright, alright, young people are all like this. Yi Yang, hurry up and carry Xinyi back to your room. She must be cold without shoes.”

“Husband, feet are cold, cover.”

Yi Yang looked at her with an incredulous gaze that seemed like it could burst into fire, and warned her not to go too far silently with his eyes.

“Alright, alright, let’s go first.” The Old Master smiled and left with Mrs. Yi, making it clear that he did not want to interfere in the affairs between the husband and wife, and mirthfully whispered to Mrs. Yi, “I haven’t seen them for two years. But, the relationship between these two children is so good?”

Mrs. Yi looked back at the two and smiled. “I told you you didn’t believe it. Now that you’ve seen it with your own eyes, can you rest assured?”

Xu Xinyi, confidently relying on the Old Master’s backing, thrust her foot into Yi Yang’s hand.

Her feet were actually quite good-looking, tender and white, with toenails that were rosy and clear.

Yi Yang felt as if he had grasped a piece of ice and his face turned black for a while.

“Hurry up, Grandpa is still watching us. Take me back to my room!” Xu Xinyi whispered.

Yi Yang held her feet in one hand, cupped her waist in the other, endured a belly full of fire, and went back to the room with Xu Xinyi in his arms.

“Honey, I know you don’t like me, but now that Grandpa is back, even if you don’t like me, you have to cooperate with me for the sake of Grandpa’s health.”

Yi Yang’s face was expressionless. “Get down.”

Xu Xinyi loosened her hands and slowly slid down from Yi Yang.

“I know what I have to do, but Xu Xinyi, I warn you, you need to settle down in front of my grandfather!”

Xu Xinyi pouted her lips and said, “Oh.”

— “I still dare to do it next time.”

Yi Yang angrily went into the bathroom and washed his hands.

After washing up, the two of them got dressed and went downstairs.

The Old Master also returned to the table after a short rest upstairs to enjoy his first breakfast reunited with his family in two years.

Xu Xinyi looked at the Old Master with his silver hair and felt melancholic.

When she had first arrived, the Old Master still had black hair and was in high spirits. But now, in less than two years, under the torture of illness, his hair had turned all white.

“Grandpa, you came back early without saying anything. Are you all right?”

“Grandpa is old and strong. What could be wrong?” The Old Master laughed and lovingly patted Xinyi on the back of her hand. “But where is Yi Yang?”

“He will be here soon.”

As soon as she had finished speaking, Yi Yang came down from upstairs. He was well-dressed in a suit, and even after the turmoil and chaos of the past few days you could not find any trace of tiredness from the expression on his face. He took his time to walk steadily over in front of the Old Master, “Grandpa.” 

Even in his seclusion, the Old Master had been kept apprised of Yi Yang’s various achievements over the past two years. So the Old Master knew of all the progress and achievements earned by his grandson.

Looking at the grandson in front of him, who could make him feel at ease to carry on the Yi family business, the Old Master nodded and his eyes were filled with satisfaction. “Not bad!”

The Old Master had always advocated a strict teaching style to both his son and his grandson, so Mrs. Yi knew that the fact that the Old Master could say the words “Not bad.” was an affirmation of Yi Yang’s skills.

“Grandpa is very satisfied with everything. The only negative thing is that I have been in a nursing home for more than a year. And why haven’t you two given me a great-grandson yet?”

“Grandpa, I am very busy with work and have no time. Besides, Xinyi is still filming, it is not suitable for pregnancy. We are still young and in no hurry.”

“There’s no hurry? What of when Grandpa already is buried…”

“Grandpa, you for another hundred years!”

Mrs. Yi interjected. “Dad, you haven’t had breakfast this morning, have you? Let’s all have breakfast first.”

The Old Master glanced at the two and sighed, “OK.”

He seemed to have stumbled onto something.

The table was covered with the usual dishes of the several people at the table, and Xu Xinyi sat beside Yi Yang, just like many wives who were passionately in love, her eyes were curved into twin crescents of joy.

“Honey, what do you like to eat? I’ll get it for you.”

“I’ll do it myself.”

“I’ll do it!” Xu Xinyi snatched the toast out of his hand and quickly lathered a thick layer of butter on the toast, then drizzled it with honey and, before anyone else at the table noticed, sent it to Yi Yang’s mouth.

“Hubby, say ah~.”

Seeing that Yi Yang did not open his mouth, Xu Xinyi asked strangely, “Husband?”

Yi Yang was a weirdo, a ruthless person who can drink black coffee straight with an expressionless face, but he refuses to eat even a mouthful of sugar.

It’s not that he can’t eat it. It’s not that he has allergies. It’s just pure dislike.

Yi Yang stared at her, and his eyes seemed to flash with a warning for her not to overdo it, but Xu Xinyi finally had this opportunity, how could she be willing to miss it? She hypocritically asked, “Husband, is it not to your taste? You don’t like it?”

After a while, Yi Yang with a face as black as the bottom of a pot, took a bite of the toast, chewed it twice, and then suddenly stopped. He stared into Xu Xinyi’s eyes with a burning gaze. He seemed to be struggling, as if he could not swallow, as if he wanted to vomit. His Adam’s apple bobbed violently up and down a few times before the piece of toast was finally swallowed.

One warning after another, Xu Xinyi turned a deaf ear to all of it.

Two whole pieces of toast were fed to Yi Yang by Xu Xinyi, bite by bite.

Yi Yang’s hand, hidden under the table, was clenched tightly but his face stayed the same. Calmly he called for Miss Zhang and asked for two cups of coffee, one of which was placed in front of Xu Xinyi.

Yi Yang slowly took a sip of the coffee. “You like coffee, so I asked Miss Zhang to make you a cup of coffee.”

It was straight black coffee. Without sugar and milk, so Xu Xinyi found it bitter and disgusting.

Xu Xinyi flashed a guilty smile. “I don’t like it.”

But she couldn’t not drink, so the coffee eventually reached her mouth.

Xu Xinyi’s smile fell abruptly.

— “Childish! Childish! Childish! “

— “Can you be more childish? Is it necessary to be so calculating? Is your heart a needle?”

— “Such a ruthless son of a bitch!”

Tit for tat, Xu Xinyi slowly drank the coffee delivered by Yi Yang, and under the increasingly loving eyes of the Old Master, she drank it all, one mouthful at a time.

After she finished, the bitterness coating her tongue was almost indescribable. Xu Xinyi had a taste of pregnancy** in advance and almost said goodbye to this beautiful world.

“Thank you, husband.”

— “You wait for me!”

The Old Master watched them from the side and the smile in his eyes deepened.

This child, Yi Yang, was not like himself or like his father. Instead, he was like his grandmother, his face was cold and his heart was cold. So if there could be more people around him able to enter his heart, the Old Master would feel relieved.

“Before I went to the nursing home, the relationship between this husband and wife was so cold. But now that I’ve come back, their relationship is so good.”

Mrs. Yi, with an indescribable expression, said with difficulty: “Feelings… with time they can be cultivated.”

The Old Master didn’t seem to sense anything. He said with a smile. “That’s true isn’t it.”

Yi Yang, who had finished his vengeance, looked at the time on his watch. “Grandpa, it’s getting late. I’m going to work first. You have a good rest at home. I’ll have a good chat with you after I come back.”

“Go ahead.”

Yi Yang got up and walked out.

“Honey, your tie seems to be crooked.” Yi Yang looked down and was about to straighten up his tie himself when Xu Xinyi suddenly got up to sort out Yi Yang’s tie. She positioned herself so the Old Master couldn’t see what she was doing and “carelessly” yanked too hard on the tie. Nearly choked, Yi Yang almost spit out the breakfast he had just eaten.

Yi Yang coughed violently twice.

Xu Xinyi hurriedly apologized, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to. Husband, are you all right?”

Yi Yang sullenly fixed the tie while letting out a few placating words, “It’s all right, I’ll go first.”

“Wait a minute.” Xu Xinyi raised her head and cutely pouted.

Looking at Xu Xinyi’s oily mouth, he grit his teeth and forced out one word at a time and said, “…Again, what, what?”

“Darling, kiss.”

Yi Yang: “…” 

Previous TOC Next

* this is a chinese idiom “管不了三七二十一” which “means that actions are taken without considering consequences” and I have no idea how to translate it sooooo… I changed it!

**I guess pregnant women taste a lot of bitterness? Literally or metaphorically? idk

I’ll probably try to keep up a pace of a chapter a day for the next while