After Escaping Marriage - Extra 32

Chapter 175: Extra 4 - A Joyous Union

“What is it you like about me?”

“You’re cute.”

“Cats are cuter. You’d be better off getting a cat.”

“I only want to keep you.”

“Class monitor, we’re only sixteen this year. Don’t you think saying things like that is too childish?”

…

“Do you like me?”

The scene fast-forwarded. Lian Yabing was pushed against a pillar in the covered walkway of Number One High School, and a fiery kiss pressed down on her.

Lian Yabing lay in bed, clutching a stuffed doll in her sleep. Her arms tightened inch by inch, her expression gradually growing rapturous. As the dream progressed, her breathing became more and more rapid, and her long legs, hidden under the covers, restlessly bent.

A light rain began to fall, pattering against the glass windowpane.

Lian Yabing awoke. She opened a pair of moist, hazy eyes and looked towards the window, where the curtain was fluttering.

Resigned, she got up, took a shower, and then went back to bed to sleep under the covers.

The next morning, Lian Yabing was awakened by her alarm clock. She cracked her eyes open a sliver, groggily turned off the alarm, and let her mind go blank as her body moved on autopilot-brushing her teeth, washing her face, getting dressed in front of the mirror.

The mirror reflected the face of a young woman. She was twenty-five this year, but perhaps because she was carefree, she looked younger than her peers. Her features were delicate, possessing a kind of unrefined spiritual energy.

From sixteen to twenty-five, Lian Yabing’s life had followed a set path. She got into a top-tier university and, after graduating, became an accountant at a foreign company.

Lian Yabing’s mother had been strict with her since she was a child. Like most traditional parents, she forbade dating in high school, didn’t allow relationships in college, and then, as soon as she graduated, she couldn’t wait for her child to magically produce a partner and get married. After emerging from the ivory tower, Lian Yabing endured the harsh realities of society while also obeying her mother’s command to go on blind dates on the weekends.

Over the past three years, it wasn’t that there hadn’t been prospects her mother was satisfied with. But because Lian Yabing was too busy with work and treated it like completing a task-squeezing in time for dinner, dates, and movies without any real heart in it-and because she herself didn’t want to get married so early, the men all initiated the breakups.

It had only been a month since her last breakup. Lian Yabing’s mother felt she had had enough time to heal her “broken heart” and swiftly arranged the next blind date for her.

【Tomorrow is Saturday. Do you remember what Mom told you?】

Lian Yabing had just gotten on the subway. In the sardine-packed carriage, she struggled to pull her phone out of her pocket. She lit up the screen, a complex and melancholic look flashing in her eyes.

Lian Yabing: 【I remember】

Lian Yabing’s Mom: 【Dress up nicely】

Lian Yabing: 【I know】

The subway arrived at its destination. Lian Yabing relaxed and let herself be carried out by the tide of people. She adjusted the strap of her shoulder bag and stepped into the crowded flow. As soon as she exited the station, the entire city, like a waking beast, greedily devoured the people stepping into its mouth one by one.

In a Grade A office building in the CBD.

Lian Yabing clocked in and sat down at her desk. She used the few minutes before work started to race against time and finish the breakfast she had brought up from downstairs.

She stuffed a bite of a steamed bun into her mouth, her cheeks puffing out. Someone knocked on the office door.

Lian Yabing forcefully swallowed the bun in two bites, the food getting stuck and making her face turn red. She looked up to see a colleague from the next department.

The colleague said, “Yabing, Director Lan wants to see you.”

The “Director Lan” she was referring to was Li Lan, the marketing director who had been parachuted in last week. She was said to be a high-achieving graduate from Stanford who knew the big boss.

The foreign company Lian Yabing worked for had numerous departments, and Li was a common surname, so there were countless people called Director Li. To differentiate, the employees below referred to Li Lan as Director Lan.

Lian Yabing had been with the company for three years. Although she was a bit slow in some respects, her work ability was strong, making her a pillar of her department. When the new director arrived, a meeting was held, and Lian Yabing was there.

She was standing next to her department manager at the time, listening to her colleagues whispering. The new director was very young, and a woman at that. Their words implied that she hadn’t gotten her position through proper means. Lian Yabing scoffed inwardly but, constrained by her position and her relationships with her colleagues, could only keep quiet.

When talking about the new director, everyone used her English name, so Lian Yabing never thought that the new boss, Stephanie, would turn out to be her high school classmate-or more accurately, her classmate from her first year of high school, Li Lan.

She couldn’t even pronounce that English name properly. Fine, that was very Li Lan.

When Lian Yabing heard Li Lan introduce herself at the meeting, she was momentarily dazed.

Her appearance had changed a lot compared to when she was sixteen. Her dark blue business suit was sharp and clean, the bones of her fingers were as straight as jade bamboo, and the way she held her fountain pen had the air of an elite. The beauty mark on the tip of her nose back then was now almost alluring.

After the meeting ended, she followed the crowd out of the conference room. She heard a soft cough from behind her. “Lian…”

Lian Yabing turned around. Li Lan was tidying up the fountain pen on her desk, her gaze never once turning towards her. It was as if she had imagined it.

Lian Yabing blinked in confusion, pulled her gaze back, and continued walking forward.

Later that day, she ran into Li Lan in the breakroom.

Li Lan was making coffee, and Lian Yabing was in line behind her, staring at the floor.

Even though they weren’t in the same department, a boss was still a boss. Who wouldn’t try to avoid their superior? Besides, it had been so many years. They had only been classmates for a year. Li Lan probably didn’t recognize her… right?

The figure in front of her moved away. Lian Yabing stepped forward and breathed a sigh of relief as she got her coffee.

Just as she thought, Li Lan definitely didn’t recognize her.

Vaguely, an indescribable sense of disappointment washed over her. Why was it that she recognized her, but she didn’t recognize her? She had clearly changed much more than she had.

The moment Lian Yabing turned her head, she saw the very person she had just been grumbling about standing right beside her, sizing her up thoughtfully.

Lian Yabing jolted, but her face remained calm. “Director Lan,” she said respectfully.

Li Lan gave a lazy “mm-hmm” and leaned back against the handrail in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. “You look familiar,” she said pleasantly.

She had the nerve to say that?!

Lian Yabing almost exploded with anger, but she still didn’t show it. She just smiled, neither confirming nor denying.

Lian Yabing picked up her coffee and, ignoring how hot it was, drank it all in one go. “Director Lan, I have to get back to work,” she said.

Li Lan nodded, her expression gentle. “Go ahead.”

Lian Yabing couldn’t help but quicken her pace as she left the breakroom. Just as she was about to step through the door, she suddenly turned back for a look.

Li Lan was standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, one arm crossed, the other holding her coffee. The sunlight cast a golden glow around her slender figure.

“My name is Lian Yabing,” Lian Yabing said.

Li Lan seemed not to have expected her to come back. She looked slightly stunned, then nodded and smiled politely.

Lian Yabing left. Where Li Lan couldn’t see her, her retreating figure looked like she was fleeing in disarray.

Knowing full well that she didn’t remember her, why did she have to announce her name? Wasn’t that just asking for humiliation?

In a place Lian Yabing couldn’t see, Li Lan put down her coffee cup, lowered her eyes, and a faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

They weren’t in the same department, but for some reason, Lian Yabing always managed to run into her by accident-in the breakroom, by the elevators, at the check-in machine, and the occasional encounter in the hallway.

Lian Yabing felt it was probably her own psychological doing. In the past, she never paid attention when she ran into other superiors or colleagues. But now, a former classmate had shown up, and a former classmate who had confessed to her and was now her superior, no less.

Lian Yabing had also been confessed to in college, by both boys and girls, but the first time was always the most memorable. Besides, back then… she seemed to have slapped Li Lan across the face.

After that, the two of them became like strangers. In their final year of high school, Li Lan went abroad, while she stayed in the country to take the college entrance exams. She hadn’t heard any news of her for years.

Lian Yabing forced herself not to pay attention to Li Lan. Everyone had two eyes, one nose, and one mouth. What was there to be concerned about? Who didn’t have a wild and reckless youth? If Li Lan were to remember, she might even want to kill her.

However, the ideal was plump, but reality was skinny.

Li Lan had always been the core of class unity. She was approachable, had a great personality, and was a natural leader. On top of that, she had grown more and more beautiful. In the company, she was definitely the office beauty. A capable and beautiful female superior was always the subject of employee gossip after hours.

Lian Yabing sat in her office, listening to a colleague at the next desk talk about how she ran into Director Lan in the elevator that morning and Director Lan smiled at her. The colleague clutched her chest as if she had been struck. The other colleagues all expressed their envy. The colleague then looked at the expressionless Lian Yabing.

Colleague: “???”

Colleague: “Yabing, aren’t you happy?”

Lian Yabing typed a line of numbers into her Excel sheet. “No, I was just thinking that the audit is coming up soon,” she said.

The colleagues’ faces immediately fell, each one looking as though they had lost a parent.

On such a fine day for slacking off, why did she have to say something so unlucky?

The chattering in the office died down, replaced by the incessant sounds of shuffling documents and clicking keyboards.

Lunch break.

The colleagues started up again.

“Do you guys think Director Lan is married?”

“Director Lan is only twenty-six, what’s the rush to get married? Besides, I haven’t seen her wearing a wedding ring.”

“Then does she have a partner?”

“Who knows? Why don’t you go find out?”

“Hahaha, I’ll go! Director Lan has such a good temper, she definitely won’t get angry. If she doesn’t have a partner, I’ll make my move.”

Same-sex marriage had been legal for over a decade. It was no longer anything new for a woman to pursue another woman.

Lian Yabing finished the apple in her hand in a few bites and went out to the terrace.

Coincidentally, as soon as she pulled open the terrace door, the subject of the gossip was standing right there.

Li Lan had changed into a white business suit, which made her look less stern and more approachable.

“...My apologies,” Lian Yabing said.

She turned to leave.

“Wait a moment,” Li Lan called out from behind her.

Lian Yabing turned back.

“The terrace belongs to everyone in the company. You are more than welcome to sit here,” Li Lan said with a pleasant look.

Lian Yabing’s face showed her hesitation. “Well…”

“If you don’t want to stay here because of me, I can leave,” Li Lan said.

With things said to this extent, it would be ungracious of Lian Yabing to leave.

Li Lan stood there, looking at the view, while Lian Yabing sat on a bench playing on her phone. The breeze on the 30th-floor terrace was pleasant and comfortable.

Lian Yabing played for a while. Seeing that the other person remained motionless, she followed her gaze.

The towering buildings, the flowing traffic, the ant-like figures on the ground-it was the same view year after year, nothing special.

Lian Yabing finished the level of her game and left. Li Lan had her back to her the whole time. Only after she was gone and her footsteps could no longer be heard did she turn to look in the direction she had disappeared, lost in thought for a long time.

Lian Yabing stood at the office door, her hand pressed against her chest. Her heart seemed to be beating unusually fast.

She lowered her hand, slowed her breathing, and walked quietly through the door. Sitting at her desk, she checked her heartbeat again; it had returned to normal.

How strange.

What was even stranger was that she started dreaming. The events of when she was sixteen replayed on a loop in her dreams, but the story after the forceful kiss was different from reality. She didn’t slap Li Lan. The scene shifted to the present. Her twenty-five-year-old self was pushed against a door by the twenty-six-year-old Li Lan, who held her chin and kissed her, their clothes scattering to the floor.

Utterly entangled.

Wet dreams were something one got used to. Lian Yabing was, after all, a physically and mentally mature woman. It was just that in her previous dreams, the other person was always faceless. Sometimes male, sometimes female, and not even limited to humans. The more she suppressed it, the more she let loose in her imagination.

Now, it was simply Li Lan who had replaced the faceless person and become the object of her wet dreams. Li Lan was beautiful, and her fingers were long. Who wouldn’t want to do this and that with her? Dreams had nothing to do with reality.

With this thought in mind, Lian Yabing contentedly enjoyed herself in her dreams, even developing different positions.

The time returned to the present.

Her colleague called her to Li Lan’s office.

Lian Yabing pointed to herself, her face, still red from choking, flushing even more. “Me?” she asked.

The colleague nodded.

“Did she say what it’s about?” Lian Yabing asked as she tidied her desk.

The colleague gave her an “how would I know” look. Lian Yabing chugged a large gulp of water, finally washing down the bun in her esophagus. She let out a long breath and said, “I’ll go over now.”

Lian Yabing stood at the door of the director’s office. She subconsciously neatened her hair, adjusted the collar of the white shirt under her sky-blue blazer, and glanced down at her tight pencil skirt before raising her hand to knock.

“Come in.”

The voice from inside was somewhat cool and also a bit unfamiliar.

Lian Yabing pushed open the door, also pushing open the flowing river of a decade’s time. She stood at the entrance and said to the woman far behind the desk, “Director Lan.”

Li Lan looked up from her documents, a natural smile appearing on her face. “Come in,” she said.

“Yes.” Lian Yabing turned and closed the door behind her.

She walked over and, at Li Lan’s gesture, sat down in the chair opposite her desk.

“Director Lan, is there something you need from me?”

“Yes,” Li Lan said, getting straight to the point. “Are you free tomorrow?”

Isn’t tomorrow the weekend? Why is she asking that?

Lian Yabing frowned almost imperceptibly. “I have something tomorrow,” she said.

“What is it?”

Lian Yabing’s frown deepened. Normally, her personality would have her refuse to answer personal questions. But for some reason, looking into the eyes of the woman opposite her, she told the truth.

“A blind date.”

With a snap, Li Lan closed the fountain pen in her hand.

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