Thirty

Ron quickly waved, as if to dismiss his words. “Miss Lin, please don’t think that Your Majesty Pluto is using you as a substitute for Seventeen. I might not know him that well but I know he wouldn’t do this much for a lookalike. You might look the same but you are not the same person.”

Lin Ruoxi cheered up slightly, smiling softly at him.

At this time, the door to the workshop was knocked on.

One of Ron’s assistants opened the door and nodded towards the person outside. “Sir, Miss Lin, Your Majesty Pluto sent me over to relay a message. He’d like to ask if Miss Lin was done with the fitting. He would like to invite her somewhere.”

Lin Ruoxi was slightly confused whereas Ron seemed to have understood it. “Miss Lin, shall we head out? Let’s not make Your Majesty Pluto wait for too long. We will wrap it up tomorrow.”

About ten minutes later, Lin Ruoxi followed Ron back to the house.

Yang Chen was talking to others about the Olympics when she returned.

“Thirty…is it the sum of thirteen and seventeen?” Lin Ruoxi remembered that his code name used to be thirteen.

Yang Chen nodded in reply.

“Which means, it’s your combination.” Lin Ruoxi’s voice was trembling.

Yang Chen didn’t dare to look at her. He nodded solemnly and said, “I carved it for her with my fingers. Unfortunately, I didn’t bleed. It would’ve looked better in red”

Lin Ruoxi’s body stiffened after hearing his lame joke. “Do you need me to step away? I’m sure you have a lot of things to say to her.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Yang Chen turned around and chuckled. “You can listen if you want.”

Lin Ruoxi didn’t reply anymore and stood behind silently while staring at the carved number.

Yang Chen reached out and caressed the tombstone. His actions were light and gentle as if afraid of waking her up from her slumber.

“It’s been more than two years since I last visited you? Have you been lonely since? Knowing you, you’d very much like a dagger in my neck right now…” Yang Chen chuckled.

But naturally, he did not get a reply. All he heard was the sound of wind which made the conversation seem more forlorn.

“I went back to China. You said I should see what our home country looks like, so I did. I sold lamb skewers at the market and even rented a shabby house. It wasn’t great but it was something. I met a lot of people who did not kill to live. They led ordinary lives. Oh, I forgot to mention that I work at a company now. I’m sure you can tell that there are a lot of pretty girls there. Don’t judge me, you were the one who turned me into this. Old habits die hard. So much has happened in the two years since you have left. I don’t know how to tell you everything in such a short amount of time. But it’s not like you were a talkative person, I doubt you would be interested in my story.”

Yang Chen glanced at Lin Ruoxi and smiled. “You must be curious about her right? She’s Lin Ruoxi, the bride at my wedding tomorrow. We’ve been married for over a year now and I thought it was time that you finally met her…”