The Art of Teasing - Chapter 114
Chapter 114
Wen Zhengyu didn't hear Ye Ling answer. She turned her head to see the curve of Ye Ling's lips lifting higher and higher. Her faintly crescented eyes sparkled radiant as a sunlit lake. The smile that bloomed from deep within transformed her entire countenance into something luminous.
Ye Ling's soft laugh reached her. She gently took Wen Zhengyu's hand, her reply drawn out unhurriedly: "Alright." That stretched syllable carried a trailing note. Though only a single word, she articulated it with a cadence so richly undulating it seemed to linger in the air like music.
Wen Zhengyu met Ye Ling's smiling gaze and realized with a start that she'd been staring. She quickly averted her eyes, her pulse quickening with nervous tension. She had always believed thirty marked a watershed for women. Some began aging from this point, gradually turning into middle-aged matrons, while others shed their girlish rawness to reveal the unique allure and ripeness of a mature woman. She couldn't quite say whether Ye Ling belonged to the latter category, but Ye Ling's features had undeniably taken on a trace of soft sensuality. The former Ye Ling had been more restrained and self-contained, with an undercurrent of sharp decisiveness. Now she seemed gentler, brighter—far more captivating than before.
Late that night, after washing up, Ye Ling slipped into bed wearing only a small pair of underpants. She pressed close against Wen Zhengyu, drawing her into her arms, and murmured low: "Zhengyu."
Wen Zhengyu had been worried Ye Ling would catch cold, so she'd deliberately turned the air conditioning temperature higher. The room was toasty warm, making her whole body drowsy. She didn't actually like this stifling heat; she preferred environments with a hint of chill and a faint, hazy moisture in the air. But Ye Ling slept unclothed, couldn't bear the cold, and her skin always stayed cool to the touch.
Ye Ling wrapped herself around Wen Zhengyu's soft, warm body, exhaled a sigh of deep contentment, and couldn't resist nuzzling gently against her.
She almost never slept before midnight—typically falling asleep around two or three in the morning and waking at six or seven. Now it was barely past ten, the peak of her alertness. Hearing no response from Wen Zhengyu, she assumed she'd fallen asleep, and found herself torn between slipping out of bed to work on her laptop and simply holding Wen Zhengyu while she slept. She was deeply reluctant to leave the bed. She just wanted to hold Wen Zhengyu like this—even if she didn't sleep at all. Mid-hesitation, Wen Zhengyu unexpectedly reached out and touched her arm, then pulled the blanket up to cover her exposed arm and shoulders.
Ye Ling felt a delighted surprise. "You're not asleep?"
Wen Zhengyu answered softly: "No." She had been on the verge of falling asleep, but had been woken by the person squeezing into her side of the bed.
Ye Ling asked: "Chat for a bit then? It's too early. I can't sleep." As she spoke, she flipped onto her stomach, gazing at Wen Zhengyu beside her. When she saw Wen Zhengyu's long, curled lashes, she couldn't help but press a feather-light kiss there. Joyfully she said: "Being with you—I feel ten years younger."
Wen Zhengyu opened her eyes, thinking: Only aging men think like that, don't they? She turned her head toward Ye Ling and asked: "Ten years younger makes you how old?"
Ye Ling said: "Twenty!"
Wen Zhengyu closed her eyes again, not bothering to humor her. She'd known exactly how thick Ye Ling's skin was from the moment they met.
Ye Ling leaned down close to Wen Zhengyu's ear and murmured softly again: "Zhengyu."
The warm breath against her ear made Wen Zhengyu shiver involuntarily. She opened her eyes and found herself meeting Ye Ling's gaze. They were so close now that their breaths mingled. Ye Ling gazed at her, her eyes deep and dark, giving Wen Zhengyu the sense that Ye Ling wanted to take all of her into those eyes and hide her away in her heart.
Gradually, Ye Ling drew closer, and then placed her lips upon hers.
Wen Zhengyu wondered: Should I close my eyes? While she hesitated, Ye Ling's kisses traveled from her lips to the tip of her nose, then to the bridge, then her forehead. Just as she thought Ye Ling was about to launch into another round of chicken pecks, Ye Ling brought her lips back to hers. Their lips pressed together, Ye Ling's nimble tongue sweeping back and forth along her lips and teeth, then slowly entwining with her tongue, chasing tightly.
By the time Wen Zhengyu gathered her scattered wits, she realized they had fallen into kissing again. Inwardly she thought: Not making you sleep on the Arhat bed—that doesn't mean permission for this.
Ye Ling's lips moved to Wen Zhengyu's ear. She whispered: "Zhengyu, I like you—very, very much."
That soft, tender murmur made Wen Zhengyu's thoughts drift again. She dragged them back, remaining admirably rational and unmoved. She quietly uttered two words: "Not doing."
Ye Ling let out a faint "oh" and lay down pressed against Wen Zhengyu. Her hand glided along Wen Zhengyu's arm, her fingers interlocking tightly with Wen Zhengyu's. She asked: "Just holding hands—is that alright?"
Wen Zhengyu was speechless. She had discerned Ye Ling's intentions clearly, and knew Ye Ling never stopped until she reached her goal. She turned to look at Ye Ling with suspicion. What met her eyes first was Ye Ling's smooth, bare forehead, then her face with eyes closed. In this moment, Ye Ling was utterly different from her usual self—all her commanding strength stripped away, revealing something soft and yielding.
As if sensing her gaze, Ye Ling suddenly opened her eyes and even gave her a playful right-eyed wink.
Wen Zhengyu realized Ye Ling truly wasn't sleepy at all. Coming to bed now was solely to be with her.
Ye Ling asked: "What are you thinking about?"
Wen Zhengyu answered honestly: "About how you're not sleepy."
Ye Ling laughed. "So you noticed." She patted Wen Zhengyu gently and said: "Sleep. I'll get sleepy eventually and fall asleep too." With that, she turned and switched off the bedside lamp Wen Zhengyu had left on for her. She wrapped her arms around Wen Zhengyu, nestling her head into the crook of her neck. She murmured: "Sleeping beside you—even without doing anything—I'm happy."
Wen Zhengyu found herself thinking: Then what would we do?
She blushed at her own thought and hurriedly banished the images that had surfaced in her mind.
The next morning, after finishing her work at the studio, Wen Zhengyu went to her maternal grandparents' home.
It was the weekend, so her youngest uncle Lian Huaixin was also home. When she arrived, her uncle and grandfather were drinking tea in the living room.
Wen Zhengyu greeted: "Grandfather. Little Uncle." She sat down beside them and naturally took over the tea utensils to pour for them.
Lian Huaixin noticed the faint red marks on Wen Zhengyu's face and asked: "I heard your face got scratched?"
Wen Zhengyu poured tea first for Lian Huaixin, then for Old Master Lian, before answering slowly: "I was envied, admired, and hated."
Lian Huaixin glanced at Wen Zhengyu and asked no more.
Not seeing her grandmother, Wen Zhengyu asked: "Where's Grandmother?"
Old Master Lian said: "In your room."
Wen Zhengyu made a sound of acknowledgment and said: "I'll go find her."
She went upstairs and pushed open the half-closed door, only to find the elderly lady squatting before the safe, busy with something. She rushed over. "What are you doing squatting here like this?" She immediately reached to help the old woman up. "Get up slowly." An eighty-something matriarch squatting here rummaging through storage was alarming to witness.
The elderly lady rose at a leisurely pace and said: "This cabinet hasn't been touched in ages. It needs sorting out." She told Wen Zhengyu: "Bring everything out."
Wen Zhengyu cast a glance at the old woman. This room had once been her mother's. She strongly suspected everything in this safe was what her mother had left behind. And the fact that the old woman, at her advanced age, was squatting here sorting through it herself—not letting anyone else touch it—clearly meant these were exceedingly precious items.
The elderly lady said: "Bring them all out. I'm at this age now—I can hardly take them into the coffin with me."
Wen Zhengyu quickly said three times: "A hundred years of life. A hundred years of life. A hundred years of life."
The elderly lady gently patted Wen Zhengyu's back. "You still believe in such things. Bring them all out."
Wen Zhengyu asked: "They're for me?"
The elderly lady said: "Those boxes on the upper shelf are all jewelry your mother once wore."
Wen Zhengyu's gaze fell on the three jewelry boxes inside the safe, then shifted meaningfully toward the old woman. From the carving, color, and style of these jewelry cases, even the boxes themselves were worth a considerable sum. What kind of jewelry warranted storing the boxes inside a safe too?
Seeing Wen Zhengyu unmoving, the elderly lady urged her: "Hurry up now. When are you ever going to fix this slow-moving temperament of yours."
Wen Zhengyu stood and went to lift out the jewelry boxes. They were heavy—substantially weighty in her hands. She carefully carried them to the nearby desk, and watched as the elderly lady brought out an old-fashioned brass key to unlock them.
These boxes were so aged that even the locks were antiquated.
Though Wen Zhengyu didn't want the Lian family's assets, she had always been deeply interested in antiques.
The elderly lady prodded her: "There are two more boxes. Bring them all out."
Wen Zhengyu carried the other two over to the table.
The elderly lady unlocked the boxes one by one and said: "Some of what's inside here was the dowry my own parents put together for me, later passed down to your mother. Back in your great-grandfather's youth—chaos everywhere, so many families ruined, forced to sell off ancestral heirlooms…"
When Wen Zhengyu saw actual court jewelry inside one of the boxes, she marveled once again at what a figure her great-grandfather must have been in his day.
Looking at the jewelry and jade pieces in those boxes, she understood at once why this dowry hadn't been left at the Wen family home for her, but had instead been brought back here for safekeeping. These pieces—you simply never saw them on the market anymore. Even if someone specifically sought them out, they'd be nearly impossible to purchase. She reckoned that if these had stayed with the Wen family, Wen Shiyi might well have done something with them. If they'd been at the Wen house during his financial crisis last year, he would probably already have pawned, mortgaged, or outright sold them. Given his current efforts to sell the Old Family Mansion, she felt certain Wen Shiyi was entirely capable of such things.
The elderly lady had opened the boxes, glanced inside, and then closed them again. She patted the lid of one jewelry box gently and said to Wen Zhengyu: "These—take them all back with you. They all belonged to Huaijin. They can only be left to you. I know you don't place great importance on wealth… and have some… discomfort in your heart about certain things. But these items—what belongs to whom belongs to whom."
Wen Zhengyu called out: "Grandmother." She had been about to refuse, but saw the old woman wave her hand.
The elderly lady said: "This is the Lian family rule. Although Huaijin is gone, so long as you exist, her things should pass to you. If they weren't given to you and were given to someone else instead—once that precedent is set, later on the siblings' properties would become hopelessly entangled and chaos would follow. You take these—they're both something to remember her by and something to sustain you. And I can worry a little less about you."
She took Wen Zhengyu's hand and sat down. "As for you—it looks like you're about to be someone starting a family. The children of the Lian family—upon reaching adulthood, they're given one portion of assets to establish a career. When they start a family, they're given another portion to settle down. The assets given at those two times—whatever they are, that's it. After that, don't go having designs on anything else. Originally, you should have been given a portion when you graduated—but you were at the Wen house, never stepping outside the main gate, never worrying about food, clothing, or spending money, not planning to do anything else besides paint. And there was Wen Shiyi to consider. So that portion was held for you. Now that you're about to start a family—we might as well give both to you at once."
Wen Zhengyu, moved, said: "Grandmother, I… Ye Ling and I… we still haven't…" She wanted to say they hadn't reached the point of starting a family yet—but they were living together now. She paused for two seconds before continuing: "We're currently just in a cohabitation relationship."
The elderly lady said: "You—if I scold you even a little, you can't bear it. But this time, because of Ye Ling, you let someone scratch up your face, and still you defend her at every turn. You made a fuss about renouncing the world, and the moment Ye Ling went, you obediently came back."
Wen Zhengyu protested: "She was sick."
The elderly lady said: "If she was sick, there are doctors. Being sick doesn't mean she had to stay at your place."
Wen Zhengyu felt she truly couldn't clear this up even if she jumped into the Yellow River. To say there was nothing between her and Ye Ling—she herself would feel she was lying against her own conscience. But to say it had already reached the point of starting a family…
She thought about how Ye Ling had even moved her bodyguards into her home, and immediately pressed a hand to her forehead. They were only one step away from holding a wedding banquet, weren't they? Ye Ling—this was essentially moving in with her to cohabitate without any formal status, wasn't it?
Wen Zhengyu pulled her thoughts back and felt she absolutely must clarify this with the old woman: "Ye Ling and I just started dating. We're still far from starting a family." As she spoke, she rose and moved to put the jewelry boxes back into the safe.
The elderly lady had long since seen through Wen Zhengyu's habit of saying one thing and doing another. She said: "Put those jewelry boxes down."
Wen Zhengyu had already laboriously lifted one up. Under the old woman's stern command, she put it back down and said: "We'll leave them with you."
The elderly lady said: "Put them back for what? Take them with you when you go home. I haven't finished speaking."
Wen Zhengyu had no choice but to set down the box and return to her grandmother's side.
The elderly lady asked: "Ye Ling has moved in with you. What arrangement do the two of you have?"
Wen Zhengyu looked bewildered. "What do you mean, what arrangement?"
The elderly lady said: "Are the two of you—one household or two?"
Wen Zhengyu stared dazedly at her grandmother. She herself couldn't quite say whether she and Ye Ling counted as one household or two.
Seeing Wen Zhengyu's wooden expression, the elderly lady's irritation flared. "Forget it. I can't sort this out clearly with you. Call Ye Ling over here."
Wen Zhengyu stared at her grandmother, dumbfounded, thinking: I'm the biological one here.
The elderly lady added: "Leave the boxes here for now. I'll have the lawyer come today to transfer the properties into your name."
Wen Zhengyu was stunned. "There's more?" Then she immediately understood. A dowry wouldn't consist of jewelry alone, of course. She asked: "The catering company and the food company?"
The elderly lady said: "Also some properties and shares. The properties are all fixed rental income. For the shares, just collect the dividends."
Wen Zhengyu stared at the old woman blankly. It took her several seconds to react. She negotiated: "Could you give me a few days to digest this?"
The elderly lady said: "It's a matter of signing a few papers and completing a transfer procedure. What's there to digest?" As she spoke, she rose. "In any case, if the matter isn't settled today, don't walk out that door." She couldn't be bothered to argue with this worry of a child, and simply walked out.
Wen Zhengyu watched her grandmother leave, dazed. Had she known coming here today would be like this, she wouldn't have come.
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