Chapter 571 - Would You Be Fond of Me? (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Zhang Yichen was very drunk indeed. He had his eyes closed. The alcohol had put him in a very uncomfortable state. He hadn’t drunk freely like that for a very long time.

Earlier, Huo Yangxiu came up to check on him. She was touched to find Huo Jinyao in the room looking after her son.

She was not young and energetic anymore. She flew to Rong City early that the morning and at this moment, she was already feeling tired. Huo Jinyao told her to go back to her room and take some rest, that he would be looking after Zhang Yichen so he did not have to worry.

Xia brought the soup into the room. Without thinking too much, Huo Jinyao called Zhang Yichen’s name and prepared to give him the soup. As the latter did not respond, he had to help him up and get him to drink the soup.

All Su Peizhen wanted to know was that Zhang Yichen had the soup.

She watched Zhang Yichen drink the soup for a moment.

She heard about that kind of drug before but had never tried it. She wouldn’t try it on herself in any case, so she had no idea exactly how effective it would be.

By the time Xia left the room, Su Peizhen had already left.

The room was quiet. Huo Jinyao stood by Zhang Yichen’s bedside, looking at him with both concern and curiosity in his eyes.

Did he misunderstand him or…?

The man on the bed didn’t seem to notice him at all. Huo Jinyao spent a moment observing him and then prepared to leave. But at that very moment, Zhang Yichen opened his eyes.

“Uncle, how do you feel?”

Zhang Yichen was still drunk and not yet sober. He thought he was looking at Su Qingsang.

Huo Jinyao had called him “Uncle” in a very soft voice. His voice sounded familiar to him. He felt like he had heard it somewhere before.

He tried to open his eyes wider to see the person more clearly. But under the effects of the drug and the alcohol, the desire that was buried deep inside him became aroused.

“Qingsang?”

On hearing her name, Huo Jinyao gave a slight start. He examined Zhang Yichen’s face and asked him again, with a very gentle voice, “Uncle, you called me what?”

Zhang Yichen couldn’t hear him clearly. He felt that the voice was coming from a long distance away, but at the same time, he felt as though “she” was whispering right beside his ear.

He was drugged. What he had taken wasn’t an aphrodisiac drug. Instead, it was something that stimulated the desire he had hidden deep down inside him.

He blinked, trying to see the person in front of him more clearly. He couldn’t though, not really.

Huo Jinyao took a step forward. Standing by the bedside, he took a closer look at Zhang Yichen’s face. In Zhang Yichen’s eyes, his face became more and more blurry.

“Uncle, who are you calling?”

“Qingsang.”

Normally, alcohol wouldn’t possibly cause Zhang Yichen to lose control of himself, no matter how much he drank. But at that very moment, the longing in his heart was indeed spiraling out of control.

All of a sudden, he reached out and grasped Huo Jinyao’s wrist.

His movement was so sudden that Huo Jinyao didn’t manage to react in time. He fell forward into Zhang Yichen.

Zhang Yichen held him tight. Under the effect of the drug, he didn’t even realize that the person he held in his arms was not Su Qingsang.

“Qingsang. Qingsang.”

With the a.s.sistance of the drug and alcohol, the feelings that he had been trying to hide away erupted intensely.

But even then, Zhang Yichen didn’t allow himself to say anything else but her name. He still remembered who they both were.

Huo Jinyao couldn’t move. It turned out that he had guessed right. He struggled to prop up his upper body, gazing at Zhang Yichen whose behavior had gone out of control and whose eyes were unfocused.

“Do you like Qingsang?”

He should not like her that way. He was not allowed to like her that way. But still, he nodded.

“Yes, Qingsang. I like you.”

She was so smart and special. He didn’t feel that way the first time he saw her, but that feeling started to grow inside him like a seed as he saw her again and again.

He rarely had the chance to spend time with her. That was exactly why he thought about her all the time.

“Qingsang. Qingsang, I like you.”

He held Huo Jinyao, whispering her name to express his feelings, but he didn’t do anything more than that.

His strong willpower was still fighting against his feelings at that moment. Even though what he saw in front of him was an illusion, he did not allow himself to do anything else to “Su Qingsang”. He did not want to do anything to hurt her.

If the others saw, they might not have thought that, but Huo Jinyao did.

Zhang Yichen was still trying to restrain himself. He was holding Huo Jinyao but he was controlling his strength.

Huo Jinyao pried himself from Zhang Yichen’s arms. He was strong and the latter was drunk, so he achieved that quite easily.

He sat down on the side of the bed and looked at Zhang Yichen, who was still reaching out his arms.

Abruptly, he leaned toward him.

“Uncle, I’m married. Don’t you remember?”

His voice didn’t contain anger or hatred. He understood better than anyone how charming Su Qingsang was. Any man who paid serious attention to Su Qingsang would discover her charm.

Zhang Yichen had discovered it. That was reasonable.

“Married?”

Zhang Yichen was confused. The face of the person before his eyes blurred even more than before. For a moment, he thought he was looking at Huo Jinyao.

But how it be Huo Jinyao?

He looked for the hands of “Su Qingsang”. His face wore a look of pain.

“I know you’re married. I know.”

He stuttered with a deep and dry voice that was filled with bitterness.

He knew that she was married and that her husband was his nephew. That was why he had been so painfully hiding the feelings that he had for her.

Why was he so unfortunate? He was finally attracted to a woman, but she turned out to be his nephew’s wife.

“Why? Why are you married? Why am I not the man you met first? Why?”

Zhang Yichen’s voice sounded so bitter. He wanted her but he could never have her. That was the worst pain he had ever had to suffer.

“Qingsang. Qingsang.”

Huo Jinyao looked at Zhang Yichen’s face. Zhang Yichen was looking back at him. The drug had started to take effect. The delusion that Zhang Yichen was having became more and more realistic.

He saw Su Qingsang returning his gaze gently.

“Qingsang. Qingsang. Qingsang, would you be fond of me if I was the one you met first?”

Once again, he reached out and held “her”.

“Tell me. Would you like me? Would you like me?”

He could not forget his first meeting with her. She had been standing in the hallway of the hospital, looking at him with her eyebrows raised, wearing a faint smile.

She had been so smart. She figured out right away that the woman had faked the accident.

He couldn’t forget that day because he had been conducting a secret meeting with his comrade. They thought they were hiding well enough but somehow, Su Qingsang b.u.mped into them in the alley and found them.

She had been so scared, but she pretended to be calm. She refused to beg for mercy.

He didn’t get to see her after that. He was surprised by her at their first meeting, attracted to her at the second. By the time he saw her for the third time, he had fallen in love with her.

He remembered how happy and relaxed she was whenever Huo Jinyao was by her side. He remembered her expressions clearly, so he tried very hard to control himself.

He knew that what he wanted could never come to pa.s.s. Therefore, he spared no effort in suppressing that desire.

But those thoughts would always surge into his mind at night, in his dreams.

He tried so hard to hold back his feelings in the daytime, but at night he couldn’t help but think about her.

What he was experiencing at the moment wasn’t exactly the same as the dreams he had been having about her. He was aware that he might be suffering from a delusion, but the desire deep inside him had been stirred and aroused. He thought he must be looking at the woman from his dreams.

He couldn’t help but ask the question that he had always wanted to ask.

“Qingsang. Qingsang. Would you like me if I was the one you met first?”

He looked at “Su Qingsang” and kept pleading for an answer.

Huo Jinyao was aware that Zhang Yichen was drunk and barely conscious. He also knew that the man was letting out his true feelings.

He only said what he said because those feelings really existed.

“Uncle.”

Huo Jinyao had to hear the name of his wife come out of another man’s mouth over and over again. And that man was his uncle.

It did not make him feel good. His face had turned slightly sullen.

“Qingsang is married.”

He reminded Zhang Yichen of that fact again. Whatever the man was thinking, he wanted those thoughts to go away and die in a ditch.

Zhang Yichen who had begun to lean into his delusion did not realize that the words he heard weren’t from the real Su Qingsang.

He heard Su Qingsang say that she was married and so, he held “her” again.

“I know. I know that you’re married.”

Zhang Yichen spoke painfully. He held her tight. He didn’t want to let her go.

“I just regret that I’m not the man you met first.”

“Qingsang might not fall for you even if you were the man she met first.”

“Why?” Zhang Yichen looked at the person before him.

“Why wouldn’t you fall for me? Last time I almost kissed you and you blushed.”

That wasn’t real. He hadn’t intended to kiss her. He was only leaning closer to her to threaten her.

Huo Jinyao didn’t know the truth. Zhang Yichen kissed Su Qingsang? His mind went wild.

‘Last time? When was that?’

How come Su Qingsang never mentioned that to him?

As Huo Jinyao was trying to recall everything Su Qingsang had ever said to him about Zhang Yichen, Zhang Yichen started talking again.

“You blushed. Doesn’t that mean that you might have fallen in love with me… If you gave me a chance?”

His drunken talk was garbled.

All Zhang Yichen wanted was some warmth from her to comfort himself, just like the warmth he had in his dreams. He didn’t realize that he wasn’t talking to the real Su Qingsang.

Huo Jinyao couldn’t bear listening to him anymore. He clenched his teeth. As Zhang Yichen tightened his arms, he suddenly struck him on the back of his neck.

Zhang Yichen pa.s.sed out. He didn’t see the strike coming.

Huo Jinyao wrenched himself out of his arms, adjusted his clothes, and quickly took a step backward. He looked at Zhang Yichen’s face and pressed his lips together with barely concealed anger.

Zhang Yichen was in love with his wife.

He was his uncle and they were close, but even then, Huo Jinyao could not tolerate it.

He was angry.

Su Qingsang was his wife and he was clearly aware of that, but still…

Huo Jinyao’s chest was heaving. After spending another moment staring into Zhang Yichen’s face, he decided not to stay. He turned and returned to his own room.

Su Qingsang was resting in his room. A few thick medical books were piled beside her right hand.

She was focused on those books, taking notes from time to time.

Before she finished writing one of her notes, Huo Jinyao abruptly showed up and squeezed her tight.

Su Qingsang gave a big start and almost dropped her pen.

“Jinyao?”

Huo Jinyao wasn’t showing any signs of letting her go, so she put down her pen.

To do that, she had to wrench herself out of his arms for a second. Huo Jinyao quickly held her tight again right after that.

Su Qingsang paused briefly with surprise. She was trapped in his arms without being able to move.

“Jinyao?”

She called him a few times in a row, but he never responded, never spoke. “What’s wrong?” She asked him.