HC Chapter 25: I Obey You (IV)
The winter vacation was very short, but this didn’t impact Dong Ci’s enjoyment of the dreamlike days.
Her mother’s restaurant reopened, and because of its unique decoration style and numerous dishes on the menu, the customers were endless.
Recently, there were a lot of young girls visiting the store. When Dong Ci wandered between the tables with the plates, she could always hear the shy giggles.
“He looks so good, and his smiles are so soft! At first glance, it can be seen that he is a very gentle brother.”
“Yes, yes! And he seems to come to this restaurant every day – he even sits in the same place. Do you think he knows the owner of this store?”
Dong Ci carried the drinks and placed them on the table, which was surrounded by several girls. When she was about to leave, she was stopped by one of them:
“Sister, do you know the brother sitting by the window?”
Dong Ci looked at the direction the girl was pointing out and saw Jing Rong, who was sitting by the window with his chin lazily tilted as he gazed into the screen of his computer. It seemed that he felt Dong Ci’s eyes on him, because the next second, he glanced in her direction and smiled. His black eyes were caught in the sunshine coming through the window – they looked particularly bright.
“Wow—”
Dong Ci heard the sound of the girls’ gasping. When she lowered her head, she noticed them staring at her. For a moment, Dong Ci was startled. Then, she stiffly smiled and explained, “He, he is my… friend.”
“Sister, do you know whether he has a girlfriend? Sister, I think he smiles so softly – he must be very gentle.”
Gentle?
It was the first time that Dong Ci ever heard the word ‘gentle’ being used to describe Jing Rong. She frowned, not knowing how to answer this group of girls, who were so full of excitement and imagination.
“I don’t know what you mean by softness and gentleness, but as I understand it, he… there is nothing soft about him. Although he looks good, he has some psychological problems. So I think that you should just look at him from the distance, and try not to get closer.”
Dong Ci said this very sincerely. As someone who knew all about Jing Rong’s temperament first-hand, she said that with genuine concern for those girls. Seeing them staring at her with wide eyes full of disbelief, Dong Ci stiffly smiled and quickly found a reason to leave.
Since the opening of the restaurant, Jing Rong has been coming here with his computer almost every day. It was unclear what the computer was for. Often, he sat for half a day tinkering with it, and he never took the initiative to approach Dong Ci. The only times they had any interaction, were when Dong Ci brought him the dishes.
Since the day when he said that he would be gentle with her, it really seemed that he became a lot milder. Sometimes, when there were few people left in the store, Dong Ci would take out her study materials and ask him to clarify some questions. Jing Rong would never refuse – he would always sit next to her and, from time to time, point out the important parts.
“This is for you.”
When he came in today, Jing Rong didn’t have the computer with him. Neither did he enter the store. Instead, he called Dong Ci to the intersection on the street, put a pair of furry earmuffs on her head, and reached out to stroke her hair.
“Why are you giving me this?”
Dong Ci took off the earmuffs and lightly stroked the silky fur, carefully observing them. Suddenly, she noticed a small label on the underside – it was embroidered with two letters: J : R.
“I made this for you,” Jing Rong explained, putting the earmuffs back on her head. His eyes softened as they admired the new addition. Quietly, he asked, “Warm?”
“Warm,” Dong Ci honestly replied.
The fluffy balls felt good, and they covered her ears very comfortably. They were so large that even her cheeks warmed up.
“It is good that it’s warm. Xiao Ci is so delicate – when I am not there, you should properly take care of yourself.”
Dong Ci furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, and subconsciously asked, “Where are you going?”
“I am going abroad. Xiao Ci, you must remember to think of me more,” Jing Rong said with his thin lips slightly raised. This cute look that she was showing – he wanted to destroy it by directly taking a bite of her lips.
A car stopped a short distance away. It seemed that he was going to the airport immediately after seeing her. Dong Ci stared at Jing Rong’s back, and just as she wanted to go back inside, Jing Rong suddenly turned around.
‘Click—’
Before Dong Ci could respond, Jing Rong suddenly embraced her sideways and took out his mobile phone to take a photo.
In the frozen picture, a handsome teenager was holding a dazed girl. The two of them were very close, their rosy cheeks intimately touching.
“It’s for commemoration,” Jing Rong explained while looking straight into Dong Ci’s eyes. He held the phone screen close to the thin lips and gently kissed it.
For a moment, Dong Ci imagined that he was kissing her for real.
Thump, thump.
Dong Ci suddenly felt her heartbeat speeding up. She had to secretly remind herself:
You can’t be fooled by him. No matter how gentle he seems right now, it isn’t real. There is only half a year left. After that, they will go their separate ways!
Mother’s restaurant was getting more popular each day, and she had so much to do, with little time to manage everything. In the end, she invited Xiao Wang, who has been helping her with the store’s management, to discuss the employment of more helpers.
Although she was slightly reluctant, Dong Ci’s mother still hired several chefs and waiters at a high price. This also allowed her to have some spare time to plan a series of new dishes with Xiao Wang.
However, maybe their restaurant was too eye-catching or some jealous peers noticed the thriving business. Maybe someone was accidentally offended before. It wasn’t clear what happened, but someone was deliberately spreading rumors, saying that the raw ingredients used for making the dishes were inferior – they could even cause one to be sick with diarrhea.
And that wasn’t all. A few days later, someone claimed to have eaten a hair, while another person said that there was a bug in their dish. More people were emerging with claims about meat dishes, which supposedly had a foul smell.
With someone deliberately fanning the flames, the reputation of the restaurant sharply fell. When other store owners found out, they also made a fuss – the bosses from the tea shop and the bakery situated on the other side of the street came to their doors.
“Say, can’t you peacefully make your home-cooked food here? You even have to sell pastries and milk tea! How do you want others to live if you monopolize everything?”
“Yeah, I heard the owner of another boss say that you were still bragging about the pastries – supposedly, they are better than the ones sold at my store. It’s not that I am blaming you, but you are a widow. How can you be so bold and grab business from so many people?”
Knowing that Shi Ze’s vacation was about to end and he would be going back to university, Dong Ci’s mother insisted on her daughter inviting Shi Ze for a meal in her store. But who could have known that when the pair of teenagers entered through the door, they would be greeted by the sight of several people causing a ruckus? Those people were also tall and burly men. They were bullying the lone woman with no one to help – they even smashed furniture and decorations.
Dong Ci panicked and wanted to rush to her mother, but she was stopped by Shi Ze.
“Let me deal with this.”
Shi Ze pushed Dong Ci away and walked straight into the crowd, pulling the girl’s mother behind himself. Then, with no hesitation, he opened his mouth to negotiate:
“What do you want?”
“We are all businessmen. We aren’t bandits, what do you think we came here for? We just aren’t used to this lady robbing everyone by opening a restaurant, only to sell milk tea and pastries. We didn’t say anything in the beginning, but she went ahead and told everyone that our things are expensive and unpleasant! Who can bear with it?”
“I didn’t say anything of the sort!” Dong Ci’s mother denied immediately.
She did open a restaurant and sold some drinks and pastries, but this was because she had already planned to do it with her late husband. But she never spoke badly about other stores, and she never used cheap ingredients to cook the dishes. She felt that she has been very quiet since opening the store and never did anything wrong.
Maybe the only mistake that she committed during this time was that her interactions with others weren’t smooth enough. Inadvertently, she offended the surrounding store owners.
“We don’t want her selling milk tea and pastries in the future! She also has to pay for the loss of our shops’ reputation because she was the one spreading bad rumors everywhere! If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have lost our profits this month!”
“Yes, you were the one who caused us to lose our money!”
“It’s you who made us not even afford the rent after opening the restaurant!”
These people have been long since jealous of this store. After they heard that the owner was a widow and there were no relatives to support her, they joined hands to come and ridicule the woman.
They were deliberately very arrogant and bold – it was because there was no one she could rely on. The scales were measured – even if they couldn’t get the compensation, the more they shouted, the more passers-by would see from the outside. Even after they left, the rumors about the incident would spread, and it would be only a matter of days for the restaurant’s reputation to be destroyed.
Dong Ci’s mother looked at the ugly faces of the men surrounding her, then she looked at the passers-by outside, pointing their fingers and discussing something. A huge wave of helplessness swept over her, and she was almost unable to prevent herself from collapsing.
“Mom—”
From behind the crowd, the mother heard Dong Ci’s worried cry. Her fingers trembled, but she finally calmed down and tried to give her daughter a soothing smile.
Yes, she still has hope. For Xiao Ci, she can’t fall!
Originally, there was the intention of having a good meal with Shi Ze. But in the end, the store was in ruin,s and there were several people busy with cleaning it up. No one had a desire to eat anymore.
Dong Ci’s mother was maliciously vilified and framed, while the fellow shop owners tried to extort money and smashed the store. In the past few days, Dong Ci felt as though she would never live a smooth life – whenever something good came her way, it would be inevitably destroyed.
This store was her mother’s last-ditch effort at happiness. It wasn’t only something that could support their expenses – it also contained the many memories the two of them had of the father.
Dong Ci didn’t dare to cry, although her eyes were wet. She wanted to comfort her mother but found that the older woman’s eyes were empty and dull. She seemed indifferent to the world, as though she would leave it, and her daughter, at any time.
Looking at such a state of her mother, Dong Ci felt uneasiness creeping up. She didn’t know when it began, but her mother was a little strange.
By the time Shi Ze left, the sky was already dark.
Shi Ze walked in the front, and Dong Ci followed behind. Because of the incident that day, her mood was very unstable and her slow walk also reflected it. Finally, she couldn’t help but stop to weakly crouch on the ground, her eyes filling with tears.
“Xiao Ci.”
When Shi Ze heard a whimper from behind, he stiffened, then turned around to squat in front of the girl. He wasn’t very good at comforting, so he could only brush her hair and coax, “Don’t cry.”
Dong Ci also didn’t want to cry, but she could no longer endure it.
Sadness, helplessness, anger, unwillingness – various complex emotions were mixing in her heart. She didn’t understand: why her mother, who worked so hard every day, was never granted any reprieve. When Dong Ci thought about all those people scolding her mom back then, she almost couldn’t breathe because of the pain and anger surging in her chest.
She wanted to take away some of her mother’s sufferings or be tormented in her place!
“I just don’t understand what my mother did wrong. Why are we constantly deprived of hope, again and again?”
This was the first time that Shi Ze saw her fragile side. Under the moonlight, her tear-stained eyes were like a broken starry sky. Shi Ze’s heart also felt pained, so he directly embraced the girl into his arms.
“Xiao Ci, don’t be afraid. Give me a few more years, and I will definitely be able to protect you.”
Feeling the trembling body of the girl in his arms, Shi Ze tightened his hold. His ears were red as he gently kissed the tears on Dong Ci’s face. He was grasping her desperately, with more and more power, as though he was enduring something.
Dong Ci was shocked by Shi Ze’s actions. Her eyes were watery, but she never allowed the tears to fall as she incredulously stared at the boy.
“Xiao Ci, believe me. I will protect you and Aunt Song in the future. So don’t cry.”
This wasn’t a confession, and it wasn’t an oath. Shi Ze’s expression was clean and clear as he stared at her – indifferent.
He looked simple, but Dong Ci was never able to guess his thoughts. She could discern pity in Shi Ze’s eyes when he kissed away her tears. There was some passing depth, but when he said that he would protect her and her mother – it seemed more like a public commitment.
When Shi Ze finally left her, Dong Ci was still squatting on the ground. She took a few deep breaths and tried to return to normal. She didn’t want her mother to see any signs of distress on her face when she returned to the shop.
When Dong Ci stood up, her sight momentarily turned dark because of the low blood sugar. Fortunately, she didn’t fall and managed to grasp the lamp post beside her. She closed her eyes, letting her sight stabilize. When she opened them once again and looked forward, her gaze flickered.
Not far away from her, she saw Jing Rong’s straight figure – his black suit blending him into the night. It was unclear how long he stood there for, but his body was covered with frost, and his face looked equally cold.
“Xiao Ci seems unhappy to see me,” he stated as soon as he saw her noticing him. Jing Rong’s thin lips pulled into a cold arc. He waved his hand and called, “Come here, let me hug you.”
Dong Ci didn’t step forward. Instead, she stepped back, causing a glimmer of light to pass through Jing Rong’s eyes.
He lowered his arms and stared at her with a faint look. The dark eyes were almost indiscernible in the night, but there didn’t seem to be any anger. Jing Rong turned his head slightly, looking at the empty road. His mouth seemed to be frozen into an imperceptible smile.
He didn’t speak, but Dong Ci was scared. She bit her lip, and finally took a few steps in his direction. Her fingers were clutching her sleeves, the nails digging into her palms – as though pain could offset the rising panic.
As soon as she approached, Jing Rong grabbed her hand and firmly pulled her into his arms. His hands circled her waist using a lot of strength, as though to absorb her into him.
“Did you miss me?”
Jing Rong leaned over and kissed the top of her head, but stopped when his lips moved closer to her cheeks. There was a bit of mocking in his eyes, and as Dong Ci stayed silent, he pinched her chin to make her stare up at his face.
“Xiao Ci, when I am asking you something, I expect an answer.”
“Missed,” Dong Ci said, feeling slightly afraid of this type of Jing Rong. When she answered, there was a tremor in her voice.
“Oh?”
Jing Rong rubbed the corner of her lips with his thumb, his gaze was deep and cold. Then he smiled and used a little more strength to pinch the girl’s chin, lightly asking, “My Xiao Ci was missing me, or missing other men?”
T/N: Catching up with last week’s chapters, so there will be 2 more coming shortly. That being said, Patreon now has updated up to Chapter 30, for those interested ^^
Zefelina's Translations 
I’m sorry I couldn’t support you on Patreon, but I’ll diligently click on the ads for you. Thanks for your hard work!
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Haha, thank you ^^
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Thank you ms zefelina for translating 💓
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