Solving Mysteries
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“Babe Ruoxi, are you calling me to have some dim sum because you didn’t have enough food for lunch? Calling me at this time of the day is really abnormal eh,” Yang Chen said jokingly.
Ignoring Yang Chen, Lin Ruoxi said directly, “Follow me to a place this afternoon.”
“Where?”
“I’ll tell you at that time,” Lin Ruoxi replied.
“Are you being mysterious for your hubby?” Yang Chen asked mischievously.
Lin Ruoxi got speechless for a while before asking, “Do you want to go or not?”
“Yes, I’ll go. I’ll wait for you at your parking slot after the working hours end,” Yang Chen said. He knew that his woman was extraordinarily shy so he sounded particularly frank.
Upon arriving at Yu Lei International, he chatted with his female colleagues for a while and helped Zhao Hongyan and Zhang Cai to handle some miscellaneous inventories. He wanted to enter the department head’s office to wipe some oil on Liu Mingyu’s body, but she seemed like she was avoiding him. Having attended various meetings with the salespeople, she didn’t bother looking at Yang Chen when he served her a cup of coffee.
It was finally time to stop working. Yang Chen came to the underground parking space where the exclusive CEO parking slot was. Lin Ruoxi usually parked her car here.
Approaching the red Bentley, Yang Chen saw that Lin Ruoxi was already in the driver’s seat, obviously not giving him a chance to drive.
Upon entering the car, he looked at Lin Ruoxi who held no expression. Smiling, Yang Chen asked, “Are we going on a date like the previous one?”
Lin Ruoxi immediately blushed. Whenever she thought of dates, she would recall the scene where Yang Chen stole a kiss from her at Starbucks using the excuse of wiping the cream away. Quickly, she started the car and avoided Yang Chen’s topic.
Yang Chen buckled his seatbelts and took a look at the back seat before noticing a huge paper box. Curious, he asked, “What’s that?”
Lin Ruoxi who was driving said softly, “Something to give away. You’ll know later.”
Yang Chen stopped asking. Even if he did, Lin Ruoxi wouldn’t tell him where they were heading to and what they were going to do anyway.
After half an hour, Yang Chen got dumbfounded. He noticed that the place Lin Ruoxi brought him to, was a place he visited once before—New Hope Orphanage.
The same old buildings and the same lush trees were there. The only things that changed were the yellowed leaves and flame-red maple leaves.
When he came here earlier, it was with Li Jingjing. At that moment, the two of them were still intimate like real siblings. However, if they met today, they’d behave like strangers and not talk to each other.
As Yang Chen felt emotional, Lin Ruoxi parked her car before saying, “Help me carry the box, we’ll go in there.”
“Did you come here to give children presents?” Yang Chen asked as he wondered.
“The weather got really cold recently. I bet a snowstorm would come in no time. I got the children some new thermal underwear,” Lin Ruoxi answered.
Surprised, Yang Chen stared at her. He felt that it was unbelievable.
Lin Ruoxi got really uncomfortable when Yang Chen looked at her for so long. Frowning, she said, “What is it? Can’t I get something for the children?”
“No, it’s just that I’ve always felt that you’re cold and indifferent. I didn’t know that you’d think of the children in the orphanage. So our Ruoxi is a kind-hearted elder sister after all,” Yang Chen said smilingly.
Shy, Lin Ruoxi rolled her eyes. “Quickly, why do you have to say so much? Do you want me to carry it?”
“Call me ‘Great Elder Brother’ and I’ll carry it for you,” Yang Chen said.
“You…”
Without waiting for Lin Ruoxi to outrage, Yang Chen immediately exit the car smilingly and took out the box from the back seat. It was rather heavy, may have contained quite a lot of underwear.
Following Lin Ruoxi who was rather pissed to the entrance of the orphanage, President Cha opened the door to welcome the visitors. Looking at Lin Ruoxi with Yang Chen, his expression revealed joy and doubt.
“Ruoxi, you’re here… Sir, long time no see,” President Cha greeted them smilingly.
After greeting the old President Cha, Lin Ruoxi asked out of curiosity, “President, do you know Yang Chen?”
“Oh, Mr Yang came not long ago,” President Cha said. He didn’t mention that Yang Chen came with Li Jingjing. Old people were indeed wise. It was best not to reveal unnecessary information to avoid causing problems.
Lin Ruoxi looked at Yang Chen doubtfully, saying, “You have some empathy after all,” before walking inside alone.
Yang Chen smiled helplessly and blinked at President Cha. “Thank you President. You’re really good at talking,” he said.
“Hehe, Mr Yang, we should behave ourselves as men. I can see that you’re a rather nice person. This is all I can do to help. However, you have responsibilities to bear later,” President Cha said with a mysterious smile before walking inside.
Yang Chen was thinking about what the president meant, but followed along into the hall. He could hear the laughter of the children far away.
When he walked near, his scalp went numb.
Yang Chen could see two ladies surrounded by children shouting, “Elder Sister!” as they asked for a storytelling or games session.
One of them was Lin Ruoxi, but she didn’t seem like the usual cold and freezing lady with murderous aura, she held a brilliant smile, like gentle and stunning like a spring flower opening under sunlight.
The other one was unexpectedly Li Jingjing. With her hair tied to a ponytail, she wore a sleeveless pink clothes and had a slight make-up. Although she couldn’t rival Lin Ruoxi’s exceptional beauty, she wielded the aura of warmth and kindness, making it easy for children to get near to.
When Li Jingjing saw Yang Chen walking to the hall with a huge box, her sight froze and she closed her lips, but didn’t express too many changes. She seemed like she didn’t even know who Yang Chen was.
Lin Ruoxi also didn’t notice anything abnormal. She commanded, “Put the box there and I’ll distribute them to the children.”
“Sister Ruoxi, are they presents for us?” a cute little girl with side braids asked.
“Yeah, they’re new clothes. Wearing them will warm Little Ying for winter,” Lin Ruoxi said as she pinched the girl’s cheek. She even remembered what the name of the girl was.
Li Jingjing seemed like she calmed herself down. Patting the two children’s heads beside her, she asked, “Sister Ruoxi, is the guy Brother-In-Law?”
Lin Ruoxi’s expression looked rather unnatural. Clenching her teeth, she nodded as she said, “Yeah, I couldn’t stand that you bugged me too often. So I brought him here to see you. He’s Yang Chen. I heard that he came here once, but it’s rather unbelievable if you look at his heartless personality.”
A hint of gloom could be seen in Li Jingjing’s eyes. Forcing a smile, she said, “He looks rather dependable. Why do you say that he’s heartless?”
Lin Ruoxi heard Li Jingjing’s compliment and smiled slightly. Turning her head, she said to Yang Chen, “Yang Chen, she’s Li Jingjing, a good friend of mine here. I brought you here mainly to let her see how you look like as she was really curious.”
Yang Chen smiled bitterly. Since Li Jingjing chose to act like strangers, he wouldn't be so stupid to act abnormally in front of Lin Ruoxi. Without changing his expression, he said, “It seems like your good friend has more potential than you Ruoxi. She can tell that I’m a good man first sight.”
“Don’t talk nonsense in front of the kids. You better stand further away,” Lin Ruoxi said, displeased.
Jealousy appeared in Li Jingjing’s eyes as she listened to how the couple communicated, but Lin Ruoxi didn’t notice.
Yang Chen shrugged and stopped talking. He knew that the more he talked to Lin Ruoxi, the worse Li Jingjing would feel.
Yang Chen suddenly felt regretful. If he knew that Li Jingjing was here, he wouldn’t have come with Lin Ruoxi.
A bunch of kids looked at Yang Chen as some of them recognized Yang Chen from his previous visit. SInce he didn’t have much interaction with the children, the kids may not have a deep impression for who he was, not to mention it happened quite long ago. Furthermore, since Lin Ruoxi and Li Jingjing were there, everyone decided to ignore Yang Chen. This allowed him to avoid talking to the kids.
Very quickly, Lin Ruoxi and Li Jingjing started distributing new clothing to the children while Yang Chen looked at them from a corner while his mind was full of thoughts.
President Cha slowly walked towards Yang Chen. Smiling, he said, “Mr Yang, something must’ve happened between you and the girl Jingjing. Since I’m this old already, I’ll be a bit shameless and straightforward with you. Since Mr Yang has married such a beautiful wife, please be less greedy and stop searching for options.”
Yang Chen nodded and said, “Yeah, I too feel like I’m very greedy sometimes. However, I promised Jingjing’s parents to stop bothering her life already.”
“That can also be considered neither a good nor a bad outcome,” President Cha said as he nodded. “But I really didn’t think that Ruoxi’s husband would be Mr Yang.”
Curious, Yang Chen asked, “President, my wife seems to know this place really well. She even knows the names of the children. Does she come here often?”
“Yeah, hasn’t Ruoxi told Mr Yang before?” President Cha said as he felt strange. “I thought that Ruoxi would at least tell her family members about this… This kid… sigh… Since young, Ruoxi used to come here very often with her mom and grandma. After a while, Old Mistress and Mistress both passed away. Ruoxi would then come here alone. She likes the children here a lot. She brings presents for them on a regular basis. During festivals or whenever she was free, she would come here to play with the children and tell them stories. The children all like her very much, I like her a lot as well.
“In this world, people like her who come from wealthy families, have a kind heart, and feel empathetic to these pitiful children are too rare to be found. Some people make donations to get recognition from the society. They’d be afraid that others wouldn’t know about their contributions. Ruoxi has spent so much effort for these children and never advertised about it. I know that she’s the CEO of Yu Lei International. It’s so heartwarming that she’s contributing in the dark.”
Yang Chen finally knew why Lin Ruoxi would go out of the house out of the blue. Since she wouldn’t entertain her clients and didn’t have many relatives, Yang Chen didn’t know where she’d go with her slippers. So it was the orphanage, to visit the children.
With this explanations, when Li Jingjing told him that she got to know a beautiful elder sister and became good friends, she was referring to Lin Ruoxi!
As Yang Chen slowly solved the mysteries, Lin Ruoxi finished distributing the clothing she brought for the children. She said, “Yang Chen, I won’t be going home for dinner today. I gave Wang Ma a call already. If you’re unwilling to wait, call a cab and go back first.”
At this moment, a huge bunch of active kids were surrounding Lin Ruoxi, making it hard for her to leave. Naturally, she wouldn’t be able to take care of Yang Chen.
Yang Chen felt that this scene was rather funny. Smiling, he said, “You may have fun with the children then. I’ll leave now.”
He really didn’t want to stay there anymore since Li Jingjing would glance at him from time to time gloomily. Although all of the looks were momentary, he still felt rather uncomfortable.
After saying goodbye to President Cha, he walked out of the hall alone.
Li Jingjing gazed at Yang Chen who walked away without turning back to take a look. Her face looked more pale, while resolution started filling her eyes.
Lin Ruoxi who was immersed in joy wouldn’t notice this at all.