CH 1

Just want to be with You – Chapter 1

Translator: Oinkoink

Chapter 1

This novel is only hosted on Foxaholic, copies found elsewhere are either stolen or plagiarized.

Drizzling rain and wind drifted along the west coast making these November days exceptionally cold. Under the umbrella, Liang Yin didn’t feel the coldness as she looked at the lawn in front of her, bidding her final farewell.

There wasn’t any more of the initial sadness in her eyes, only a little calmness.

The lawn was dug up and covered with piles of stones burying her companion – a dog named Victor who had accompanied her for 13 years.

There was still no reply from yesterday’s last text message on her cellphone.

___ Victor is dead.

And the previous message was –

___ Mingzhen, Victor seems to be dying.

Mingzhen. Zhong Mingzhen, head of Zhong’s Conglomerate. Her husband and the man she had loved for 13 years.

The wind fluttered her hair over as Liang Yin’s eyes blurred up.

That year, she came to the Zhong family with her maternal grandma. She was sitting on the sofa chatting with Old Madam Zhong when she heard the car outside. Raising her head, she caught sight of Zhong Mingzhen getting out of the car.

That year, he was just 20 and has always been aloof. The white shirt on his body glowed under the summer sun.

Old Madam Zhong said – this is my grandson. As a courtesy, she stood up and smiled. He glanced at her without any expression, merely nodded his head before he took leave to go upstairs.

He rushed back from school to get something that he forgot at home.

Innately alienation.

It was two months later when she met him again and it was the first day of summer vacation. Originally, the one intended to pick her up was supposed to be people from the Shen family, nevertheless she saw Zhong Mingzhen instead.

Unaware of the situation, she got into the car when he turned his head and said – your great-aunt is in the intensive care unit and your maternal grandma had rushed over there. I am here to bring you home.

There wasn’t any superfluous word.

Her maternal grandma had forgotten to notify her in a haste.

As her maternal grandma was in the Zhong family at that time, Old Madam Zhong had said – You go first. I will let Mingzhen pick Yinyin up.

She lowered her head as she listened, unable to explain clearly what she was feeling when inadvertently she heard a whimper. She turned to look back and caught sight of the cage on the backseat. There was a puppy lying prone in it.

She didn’t know the breed of the dog. He just said it was a border collie with no desire to continue the subject.

He brought her back to the Zhong family that day where she stayed for a while. Great-aunt’s days were limited and as one of the only two remaining living relatives, her maternal grandma stayed to keep her company. There was no one left in the Shen family. Old Madam Zhong was concerned about leaving her alone, hence she simply let her stay in the Zhong family. She actually wished to go back to Shen family as it didn’t matter to her staying home alone. However, Old Madam Zhong insisted she stay as she didn’t feel at ease.

Maternal grandma and Old Madam Zhong were lifetime bosom friends. Old Madam Zhong had long treated her as a junior member of the family since she moved to her maternal grandma’s home several months ago.

Once she resided in the Zhong family, she had also met Zhong Mingzhen but they seldom talked and rarely saw each other. Zhong Mingzhen was someone quiet and very busy. He had school work to complete with lots of friends around him and a large family business to inherit. She didn’t take any notice as she was busy with her own stuff. Revising her school work, taking dance lessons in the afternoon and accompanying Old Madam Zhong three meals a day.

From time to time, she would take care of the little puppy named Victor.

Old Madam Zhong had asked what the little puppy’s name was. Zhong Mingzhen had said, Victor, without hesitation, as if he had long thought of that name.

She had looked up the meaning of the name. Victor means the winner with the implied meaning of integrity, trustworthy and unchangeable. Just like the person himself.

He had won this little border collie from a wager with his friends. It was unclear if he liked it or not as she would occasionally see him play with it but most of the time it was handed over to others. She, however, would often keep it company. She would feed it, bathe it, take it for walks and foster its good habits.

At first, there wasn’t much fondness but was rather based on a kind of dependence as she was one who sojourned in such a huge Zhong family, but later she was reluctant to part with it since she had been raising it.

Zhong Mingzhen had to leave half a month earlier for school. When Old Madam Zhong asked if he would take Victor along, he said he would. At that moment, she felt a little distress but who would have thought on the day of departure just when she bid farewell to Victor with a biscuit, Zhong Mingzhen’s voice abruptly came from behind, “Do you like it? I will give it to you if you like it.”

She turned back and saw Zhong Mingzhen looking at her from above with an undulating calm gaze.

Since then, she had been taking care of Victor – from middle school to university, her first step into the filming industry, to getting conferred the Film Empress title in one fell swoop, then quitting the film industry and marrying Zhong Mingzhen…

All the way till now.

Soon, he completely carved the originally blurred traces in her heart. She had liked him. From the first glance which was somewhat an initial hesitation till unwavering now. Seemingly seen in his eyes, he could discern her unwillingness to part with it thus he fulfilled her wishes.

After that, it was exactly 13 years of silently waiting without complaint nor regret.

No one would have thought that the former Film Empress, Liang Yin who seemed to maintain her distance from everyone would purely and recklessly loved someone so much.

That year, she was 15. Though seemingly young, she kept everything in her heart.

She had truly loved him for the whole 13 years and had never told anyone. Only she herself had constantly held fast to it with a profoundly sober understanding. She was most willing to sacrifice everything, even when she waited many years by his side as a nobody in the beginning, then giving up all her glory for his sake when she was at the height of her popularity, and to just live abroad with him after she married him, even without anyone knowing except some intimate friends and relatives. She had neither complaint nor regret till date.

However, no matter how unregretful it was, it would stop at this point.

With the wind and pouring rain, the photo in the cellphone was particularly clear.

On the big soft bed in a hotel room, a man was sleeping on his side with the fluffy quilt covering half of his bare upper body. Although only one side of his face was shown, Liang Yin could still discern with just a glance that the man in the photo was Zhong Mingzhen. She had traced the profile of his face countless times in her heart. There was another woman behind him who was leaning on his shoulder and facing the camera. With slightly raised eyebrows, the curled up corners of her lips showed a hint of complacent and a trace of innocence while revealing a smooth rounded shoulder that similarly without a thread on.

Though she only showed half her face, she could still recognize her by just a glimpse.

Qiao Shan, Zhong Mingzhen’s cinnabar mole and white moonlight[1].

She had long known of this Qiao Shan person. Zhong Mingzhen has liked her for many years. He had asked her to marry him but Qiao Shan had never said yes.

Liang Yin had seen Qian Shan before. Beautiful and ardent. Just like an unbridled blooming flower. There were many suitors around her and Zhong Mingzhen was the one she liked, but he was also not the only one. Five year ago, Zhong Mingzhen said – I will wait for you at the entrance of the Bureau of Civil Affairs. If you come, we will register our marriage. Qiao Shan didn’t show up that day, she had stepped foot onto an airplane leaving for the South Pole with another man.

Qiao Shan had made her choice between the two. The world has simply been this way, you like him but he doesn’t like you.

Zhong Mingzhen married her half a year later.

Liang Yin remembered Zhong Mingzhen’s appearance at the time of their marriage, indifference as always without any sadness or happiness. But the absence of sorrow and joy was precisely the best explanation.

She knew Zhong Mingzhen had never loved her. Qiao Shan was unwilling to marry him, thus he could marry just anyone. During these years of marriage, she also knew that Zhong Mingzhen had never forgotten her. Though he had never explained nor revealed his feelings, the awareness has always existed.

She has never prodded and waited for many years. She was willing to keep waiting as long as there was a result, then she would be perfectly happy.

She thought one’s heart could be warmed and thawed, but she was still disappointed in the end.

Having been married for nearly 5 years, she had lived abroad with him. They were always apart as he flew all over the world. All the while keeping her company was a dog named Victor and a luxury estate worth hundreds of millions US dollars.

While on his side, there had always been unceasing rumors. She had never taken it seriously but her heart had gradually turned cold until it finally felt hopeless.

She didn’t know Qiao Shan’s purpose for sending her such a photo but it had eventually come to this point. She was willing to believe that Zhong Mingzhen would not casually let a woman approach him but she never had any confidence with regards to Qiao Shan.

This photo was sent out early yesterday morning.

At that time, Victor had finally reached the last moment of its life. As a border collie, he was considered old enough. From a little border collie and became an old border collie, it ultimately couldn’t persevere anymore. Quietly huddling at a corner without moving, it merely looked at you with its semi grieving eyes as if bidding its final goodbye.

She wasn’t aware at first but once she realized, tears spilled out rampantly. She called Zhong Mingzhen but he didn’t answer her call. When she messaged him, he did not reply.

She wanted to tell him the border collie that he gave her was dying. The dog named Victor that belonged to them and who had witnessed them for so many years would be leaving her. She wanted him to come back and send it off together.

But there was ultimately no response from Zhong Mingzhen.

So, she cried and cried until her heart finally felt relieved.

She knew they were together. She wanted him to come back because she knew they were together.

The hand which was holding the umbrella had long been icy-cold and Liang Yin finally felt it. She lowered her head in silence for a while before she finally typed a few words on her phone.

____ Zhong Mingzhen, let’s get divorce.

Victor who kept her company for 13 years is dead and now, the sentiment that she cherished and tenaciously expected for 13 years is over too.

The wind and rain were still billowing. Looking up at the unchanged scenery of the west coast, she suddenly felt homesick.

The author had something to say:

Winter is coming, so just write something that warms the heart.

[1] Cinnabar mole and white moonlight (朱砂痣 白月光 – Zhū shā zhì bái yuè guāng) – Metaphor for someone whom one hoped for but is unobtainable and cannot be forgotten.

Translator’s rambling: Some chapters will be split due to its lengthiness. Do enjoy the novel as much as I do … (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡