TL: Griseo | PR: Sakura
Chapter 2: Come To My Suite
“It’s way too early in the morning for you guys to be pulling this crazy prank on me.”
Shao Chengyun was standing in the center of the living room. His eyes widened at the sudden uninvited appearance of his mother and older brother at his doorstep as he fought back the urge to issue a trespass order on the both of them.
The eldest son of the Shao Family — Shao Zhonglin, stood behind their mother and all he could do was look at his little brother and shake his head helplessly. He too was awakened by a phone call from their mother, Lin Ying and dragged here unwillingly. Their mother made sure he showed up by exaggerating the situation and said that it was a matter of life or death, leaving him no choice but to present himself.
Shao Zhonglin was older than Shao Chengyun by 5 years, and has always been calm when it came to dealing with things. However, in that moment, he shot Shao Chengyun a look from behind their mother, telling him to suppress the fury that was evident in his eyes and to not start a fight with their mother.
Lin Ying shoved a file of documents into the hands of her youngest son. “Chengyun, I spent a lot of time and effort on this but I finally found someone suitable!” She spoke with her voice laced with relief.
Shao Chengyun couldn’t manage to utter a single word as he lowered his gaze to the documents in his hands, while Lin Ying continued on with her babbling. “Jeez, I looked everywhere for the longest time but who knew the person I was looking for was just right under our noses! Turns out the person who would help turn your misfortunes into blessings was actually a part of our family’s corporation.”
Here we go again. Shao Chengyun couldn’t help but to massage his temples with his thumbs.
This was all because of some fortune teller saying that he would experience a terrifying incident at the age of 33 which could cost him his life when he was born. And Lin Ying strongly held onto that premonition, even more so for the past two years.
Shao Chengyun was performing exceptionally in one of their overseas branches, but was called back by his older brother with the reason of their father being ill. To his disappointment however, he came home only to see both his parents as healthy and active as ever. Heck, they even invited a bunch of friends and relatives over to celebrate Chengyun’s return.
Shao Chengyun, beyond furious, was this close to storming out of the house. Though, somehow his brother and his spouse managed to convince him to stay, saying how the banquet was thrown to mainly celebrate the retirement of their father — Shao Rui. So they decided to celebrate his return while they were at it.
Lin Ying was scared that Shao Chengyun wouldn’t be willing to come back, hence she asked Shao Zhonglin to act as the bad guy for once, and trick his little brother into returning.
Shao Chengyun’s heart softened upon hearing the ‘news’ and naturally grew worried for both his parents since they were both of rather old age already, so he decided to return to the country. But who would’ve thought that his return would also indicate the beginning of his abyss of suffering.
According to experts, the only way to avoid that misfortune was to find someone who was born on the first day of the third month between the time of 5pm to 7pm, and they have to be under the protection of ‘Guishui’ which acts as a ribbon that fastens their correspondence in life. They also need to be of the water-metal element to be a suitable marriage partner, and only then will Shao Chengyun be able to escape his demise. Apart from all that, some other strict requirements regarding the person’s birth date and whatnot were also mentioned. Well, the point is, the entire ‘fengshui’ thing was as exaggerated as when God decided to create a human being.
In order to find this ‘special person’, Lin Ying wasn’t about to cut herself nor Shao Chengyun any slack; she even forced him to go on numerous blind dates which set him off in a state of absolute fury to the point where he was this close to blocking his parents’ numbers.
Now that he has that specific person’s information clutched so tightly in his hands, he finally spoke up and cut his mother off mid-sentence.
“This is a guy.” Shao Chengyun said, his eyes half-closed as he squinted at the photo pasted in the portfolio. All the while doubting if this guy was even of age already or not.
“…If I marry him, then that means you don’t want any grandchildren anymore?” He added.
Lin Ying fixed her gaze on the picture as well, though her expression wasn’t half as close to being disappointed. “Your brother’s wife already has kids so I’m not going to force you to have any. Besides, hasn’t same-sex marriage been legalized now? You don’t have time to be worrying about this. Lately, whenever I close my eyes, I’m reminded of that horrible car accident.”
It wasn’t as if Lin Ying was just blindly believing what the fortune teller had proposed; that’s why she urgently wanted Shao Chengyun to get married.
She also had her doubts regarding the ‘terrifying incident’ that was going to befall her son. She was hoping to summon her son back to the country and have him stay by her side, give him extensive care and hope for the best.
However, ever since Shao Chengyun celebrated his 33rd birthday last month, he had been involved in a few unpleasant incidents consecutively. It was as if all those anomalies were attracted to him by force and he couldn’t avoid them even if he wanted to. Not to mention, the risk of those incidents were still increasing in level.
Lin Ying wasn’t going to let those misfortunes run rampant in his son’s life anymore, hence, she used all her connections to find someone who fulfilled the conditions stated by the fortune teller.
Eventually, she really did manage to find a suitable partner after all that hassle and the person turned out to be an employee of the Shao corporation. Lin Ying felt as if she was under God’s favor then, despite all the unlucky things happening to his son. Shao Chengyun’s misfortune for the rest of the year was all up to this marriage to put a stop to.
She only managed to obtain Xin Rong’s personal information late at night, that’s why she called up Shao Zhonglin at the crack of dawn the next day to come along and convince his little brother.
Lin Ying was worried that she wouldn’t be able to convince Shao Chengyun alone so she was hoping that he’d at least listen to his sibling’s advice. The sooner he gets married, perhaps the misfortunes really would turn into blessings for him.
An hour later, the Shao family’s personal driver drove Lawyer Chen to the luxurious apartment that Shao Chengyun was living in.
Shao Zhonglin walked towards his brother and gave him a pat on the shoulder before saying, “There aren’t any urgent affairs in the company anyway. Just treat this as a vacation for yourself and go have a look, it won’t kill you.”
At that point, Shao Chengyun had already accepted his twisted fate (literally) since he knew that no matter what he said, he wouldn’t be able to win against his mother and brother duo. He put on his blazer and walked past his mother who was sitting on the couch in the living room. “Lawyer Chen will know how to handle everything, so just leave the contract conditions to him. Go meet the kid and bring him home, you’ll have to get along with him for at least a year…” Lin Ying said.
Shao Chengyun snapped out of his little flashback and as if on cue, Xin Rong had finished reading the documents and lifted his head to face Shao Chengyun.
“…President Shao, did you guys really get the right person?”
Xin Rong’s eyebrows were scrunched and his forehead wrinkled as he spoke. It seemed like he could no longer bear hearing another word, not even the relentless convincing from Lawyer Chen.
Lawyer Chen bent down a little to reach the document and flipped two pages of the document over before pointing to the blank space designated for a signature at the edge of the page. “Sign here and that’ll mean you agree to all the conditions stated above.” He said to Xin Rong.
Xin Rong didn’t take the pen that was offered to him by the lawyer. Instead, he looked at Shao Chengyun as if trying to tell him that he wasn’t at the age where he would indulge in any absurd ideas, much less an arranged marriage. “This won’t do, President Shao.”
“This is something I can’t help you with.” He added, and closed the file containing the contract before pushing it back to its original spot on the desk.
The lawyer must’ve not expected Xin Rong to turn down this offer as the office drowned in silence for a few seconds.
Lawyer Chen was about to start his convincing again but Shao Chengyun beat him to it.
“State your price.” These three words were thrown out of his mouth.
Xin Rong’s eyes widened, not expecting Shao Chengyun to be so straightforward.
Shao Chengyun was emotionless. To him, looking at Xin Rong was just like checking on any other product he could get his hands on.
“Manager Zhu mentioned that you were in debt. I’ll clear that debt of yours and even give you extra allowance every month. You can state your conditions, I’ll have Lawyer Chen write them all down in the contract.”
Shao Chengyun valued his own time as much as he did with money and he wasn’t planning to waste time on Xin Rong here.
Everyone has their own prices to offer; it was only a matter of whether it’s a high or low price. For him, the quickest solution was to just ask the other party for a price so that he could just bring him home and be done with everything.
Xin Rong pursed his lips, but his sitting position remained professional. Lawyer Chen on the other hand chirped in by saying: “Any concerns regarding the properties have already been addressed in the contract. I haven’t mentioned the add-on conditions at the back yet.”
All of that was just a bunch of sweet talk for Xin Rong to give in.
Xin Rong remained indifferent even after the lawyer finished his sentence. “President Shao, I think I understand what you guys are after now. The thing with birth dates and their representation are way too unreliable. I suppose you don’t actually believe in them either.” Xin Rong said in a respectful yet calm voice.
“I’m sorry, it isn’t about money. I really can’t help you with something like this, so please understand.”
Xin Rong stood up from the chair after he finished talking and Shao Chengyun’s eyes moved upwards in sync to Xin Rong’s actions.
He seems like such an outstanding and gullible kid but he’s got an attitude as well. Shao Chengyun thought, the corner of his lips curving upwards into a subtle smirk.
Shao Chengyun boarded the cruise with unresolved anger for his mother but ever since his meeting with Xin Rong that unfolded 10 minutes ago, the frustration he had seemed to have been diminished almost completely. Although he wasn’t sure if Xin Rong was being genuine about his rejection, playing hard to get, or if he had other reasons, seeing Lawyer Chen defeated in one corner was rather amusing for him.
He stopped Lawyer Chen from pressuring Xin Rong any further.
Xin Rong took the rare opportunity of Lawyer Chen’s temporary silence to push the chair he sat in back to its initial place. He took a step back and said, “President Shao, if you would excuse me. The restaurant needs me and passengers are coming onboard soon. I’ll take my leave here.”
Shao Chengyun returned to his emotionless (default) expression after confiscating his own smile from earlier.
Xin Rong rarely got the chance to speak with someone of such a high profile. Being a complete nervous-wreck was one thing but the intimidating aura exuding from Shao Chengyun was another, and the authoritative air surrounding him scared Xin Rong.
Xin Rong took Shao Chengyun’s silence as tacit approval. He turned around and speed-walked out of the manager’s office.
Lawyer Chen’s professionalism finally crumbled as he spoke in a troubled tone, “President Shao, how should I report back to the Madam now? She’s still waiting for my response.”
Shao Chengyun picked up the contract and gave it a hard flick on the pages. “Get the driver to send you home and call Manager Zhu in. Have him arrange a suite for me.” He said, a subtle smile playing on his lips.
Though his brother did ask him to treat it as a vacation, Shao Chengyun never planned to entertain the idea of a five days four nights trip on this cruise.
He has a change of plans now.
He didn’t manage to snag his designated partner home and he would just have to torture himself with his mother’s insufferable lecturing. More importantly, he felt humiliated. The fact that he couldn’t even convince a mere waiter who’s in his prime? That’s peak embarrassment for someone as egoistical as Shao Chengyun.
When Manager Zhu reentered the office, he acted even more cautiously than he did earlier. “President Shao, I’ve prepared the best suite for you. Is there anything else I can do for you?” Sweat was practically trickling down his forehead as he forced a smile out of his trembling body. He then handed an envelope containing the access card to the suite to Shao Chengyun.
Shao Chengyun took the envelope. “Go tell Xin Rong that he doesn’t have to return to his room tonight.”
Manager Zhu was startled, unsure of how to interpret what the president had just said because regardless, it sounded inappropriate.
“Have him come to mine instead.” He finished, his expression unchanging.
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Sunflower Seeds 
Thanks for the update!! 😩😩
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